Book I.

In which the unity and equality of the supreme Trinity is established
from the sacred Scriptures, and some texts alleged against the
equality of the Son are explained.

Chapter 1.--This Work is Written Against Those Who Sophistically
Assail the Faith of the Trinity, Through Misuse of Reason. They Who
Dispute Concerning God Err from a Threefold Cause. Holy Scripture,
Removing What is False, Leads Us on by Degrees to Things Divine. What
True Immortality is. We are Nourished by Faith, that We May Be Enabled
to Apprehend Things Divine.

1. The following dissertation concerning the Trinity, as the reader
ought to be informed, has been written in order to guard against the
sophistries of those who disdain to begin with faith, and are deceived
by a crude and perverse love of reason. Now one class of such men
endeavor to transfer to things incorporeal and spiritual the ideas
they have formed, whether through experience of the bodily senses, or
by natural human wit and diligent quickness, or by the aid of art,
from things corporeal; so as to seek to measure and conceive of the
former by the latter. Others, again, frame whatever sentiments they
may have concerning God according to the nature or affections of the
human mind; and through this error they govern their discourse, in
disputing concerning God, by distorted and fallacious rules. While yet
a third class strive indeed to transcend the whole creation, which
doubtless is changeable, in order to raise their thought to the
unchangeable substance, which is God; but being weighed down by the
burden of mortality, whilst they both would seem to know what they do
not, and cannot know what they would, preclude themselves from
entering the very path of understanding, by an over-bold affirmation
of their own presumptuous judgments; choosing rather not to correct
their own opinion when it is perverse, than to change that which they
have once defended. And, indeed, this is the common disease of all the
three classes which I have mentioned,--viz., both of those who frame
their thoughts of God according to things corporeal, and of those who
do so according to the spiritual creature, such as is the soul; and of
those who neither regard the body nor the spiritual creature, and yet
think falsely about God; and are indeed so much the further from the
truth, that nothing can be found answering to their conceptions,
either in the body, or in the made or created spirit, or in the
Creator Himself. For he who thinks, for instance, that God is white or
red, is in error; and yet these things are found in the body. Again,
he who thinks of God as now forgetting and now remembering, or
anything of the same kind, is none the less in error; and yet these
things are found in the mind. But he who thinks that God is of such
power as to have generated Himself, is so much the more in error,
because not only does God not so exist, but neither does the spiritual
nor the bodily creature; for there is nothing whatever that generates
its own existence. [8]

2. In order, therefore, that the human mind might be purged from
falsities of this kind, Holy Scripture, which suits itself to babes
has not avoided words drawn from any class of things really existing,
through which, as by nourishment, our understanding might rise
gradually to things divine and transcendent. For, in speaking of God,
it has both used words taken from things corporeal, as when it says,
"Hide me under the shadow of Thy wings;" [9] and it has borrowed many
things from the spiritual creature, whereby to signify that which
indeed is not so, but must needs so be said: as, for instance, "I the
Lord thy God am a jealous God;" [10] and, "It repenteth me that I have
made man." [11] But it has drawn no words whatever, whereby to frame
either figures of speech or enigmatic sayings, from things which do
not exist at all. And hence it is that they who are shut out from the
truth by that third kind of error are more mischievously and emptily
vain than their fellows; in that they surmise respecting God, what can
neither be found in Himself nor in any creature. For divine Scripture
is wont to frame, as it were, allurements for children from the things
which are found in the creature; whereby, according to their measure,
and as it were by steps, the affections of the weak may be moved to
seek those things that are above, and to leave those things that are
below. But the same Scripture rarely employs those things which are
spoken properly of God, and are not found in any creature; as, for
instance, that which was said to Moses, "I am that I am;" and, "I Am
hath sent me to you." [12] For since both body and soul also are said
in some sense to be, Holy Scripture certainly would not so express
itself unless it meant to be understood in some special sense of the
term. So, too, that which the Apostle says, "Who only hath
immortality." [13] Since the soul also both is said to be, and is, in
a certain manner immortal, Scripture would not say "only hath," unless
because true immortality is unchangeableness; which no creature can
possess, since it belongs to the creator alone. [14] So also James
says, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and
cometh down from the Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning." [15] So also David, "Thou shall change
them, and they shall be changed; but Thou art the same." [16]

3. Further, it is difficult to contemplate and fully know the
substance of God; who fashions things changeable, yet without any
change in Himself, and creates things temporal, yet without any
temporal movement in Himself. And it is necessary, therefore, to purge
our minds, in order to be able to see ineffably that which is
ineffable; whereto not having yet attained, we are to be nourished by
faith, and led by such ways as are more suited to our capacity, that
we may be rendered apt and able to comprehend it. And hence the
Apostle says, that "in Christ indeed are hid all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge;" [17] and yet has commended Him to us, as to
babes in Christ, who, although already born again by His grace, yet
are still carnal and psychical, not by that divine virtue wherein He
is equal to the Father, but by that human infirmity whereby He was
crucified. For he says, "I determined not to know anything among you,
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified;" [18] and then he continues, "And
I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling." And a
little after he says to them, "And I, brethren, could not speak unto
you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, [19] even as unto babes in
Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye
were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able." [20] There are
some who are angry at language of this kind, and think it is used in
slight to themselves, and for the most part prefer rather to believe
that they who so speak to them have nothing to say, than that they
themselves cannot understand what they have said. And sometimes,
indeed, we do allege to them, not certainly that account of the case
which they seek in their inquiries about God,--because neither can
they themselves receive it, nor can we perhaps either apprehend or
express it,--but such an account of it as to demonstrate to them how
incapable and utterly unfit they are to understand that which they
require of us. But they, on their parts, because they do not hear what
they desire, think that we are either playing them false in order to
conceal our own ignorance, or speaking in malice because we grudge
them knowledge; and so go away indignant and perturbed.

Footnotes

[8] [Augustin here puts generare for creare--which is rarely the case
with him, since the distinction between generation and creation is of
the highest importance in discussing the doctrine of the Trinity. His
thought here is, that God does not bring himself into being, because
he always is. Some have defined God as the Self-caused: causa sui. But
the category of cause and effect is inapplicable to the Infinite
Being.--W.G.T.S.]
[9] Ps. xvii. 8
[10] Ex. xx. 5
[11] Gen. vi. 7
[12] Ex. iii. 14
[13] 1 Tim. vi. 16
[14] [God's being is necessary; that of the creature is contingent.
Hence the name I Am, or Jehovah,--which denotes this difference. God
alone has immortality a parte ante, as well as a parte
post.--W.G.T.S.]
[15] Jas. i. 17
[16] Ps. cii. 26, 27
[17] Col. ii. 3
[18] 1 Cor. ii. 2, 3
[19] [St. Paul, in this place, denominates imperfect but true
believers "carnal," in a relative sense, only. They are comparatively
carnal, when contrasted with the law of God, which is absolutely and
perfectly spiritual. (Rom. vii. 14.) They do not, however, belong to
the class of carnal or natural men, in distinction from spiritual. The
persons whom the Apostle here denominates "carnal," are "babes in
Christ."--W.G.T.S.]
[20] 1 Cor. iii. 1, 2

Chapter 2.--In What Manner This Work Proposes to Discourse Concerning
the Trinity.

4. Wherefore, our Lord God helping, we will undertake to render, as
far as we are able, that very account which they so importunately
demand: viz., that the Trinity is the one and only and true God, and
also how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are rightly said,
believed, understood, to be of one and the same substance or essence;
in such wise that they may not fancy themselves mocked by excuses on
our part, but may find by actual trial, both that the highest good is
that which is discerned by the most purified minds, and that for this
reason it cannot be discerned or understood by themselves, because the
eye of the human mind, being weak, is dazzled in that so transcendent
light, unless it be invigorated by the nourishment of the
righteousness of faith. First, however, we must demonstrate, according
to the authority of the Holy Scriptures, whether the faith be so.
Then, if God be willing and aid us, we may perhaps at least so far
serve these talkative arguers--more puffed up than capable, and
therefore laboring under the more dangerous disease--as to enable them
to find something which they are not able to doubt, that so, in that
case where they cannot find the like, they may be led to lay the fault
to their own minds, rather than to the truth itself or to our
reasonings; and thus, if there be anything in them of either love or
fear towards God, they may return and begin from faith in due order:
perceiving at length how healthful a medicine has been provided for
the faithful in the holy Church, whereby a heedful piety, healing the
feebleness of the mind, may render it able to perceive the
unchangeable truth, and hinder it from falling headlong, through
disorderly rashness, into pestilent and false opinion. Neither will I
myself shrink from inquiry, if I am anywhere in doubt; nor be ashamed
to learn, if I am anywhere in error.

Chapter 3.--What Augustin Requests from His Readers. The Errors of
Readers Dull of Comprehension Not to Be Ascribed to the Author.

5. Further let me ask of my reader, wherever, alike with myself, he
is certain, there to go on with me; wherever, alike with myself, he
hesitates, there to join with me in inquiring; wherever he recognizes
himself to be in error, there to return to me; wherever he recognizes
me to be so, there to call me back: so that we may enter together upon
the path of charity, and advance towards Him of whom it is said, "Seek
His face evermore." [21] And I would make this pious and safe
agreement, in the presence of our Lord God, with all who read my
writings, as well in all other cases as, above all, in the case of
those which inquire into the unity of the Trinity, of the Father and
the Son and the Holy Spirit; because in no other subject is error more
dangerous, or inquiry more laborious, or the discovery of truth more
profitable. If, then, any reader shall say, This is not well said,
because I do not understand it; such an one finds fault with my
language, not with my faith: and it might perhaps in very truth have
been put more clearly; yet no man ever so spoke as to be understood in
all things by all men. Let him, therefore, who finds this fault with
my discourse, see whether he can understand other men who have handled
similar subjects and questions, when he does not understand me: and if
he can, let him put down my book, or even, if he pleases, throw it
away; and let him spend labor and time rather on those whom he
understands. [22] Yet let him not think on that account that I ought
to have been silent, because I have not been able to express myself so
smoothly and clearly to him as those do whom he understands. For
neither do all things, which all men have written, come into the hands
of all. And possibly some, who are capable of understanding even these
our writings, may not find those more lucid works, and may meet with
ours only. And therefore it is useful that many persons should write
many books, differing in style but not in faith, concerning even the
same questions, that the matter itself may reach the greatest
number--some in one way, some in another. But if he who complains that
he has not understood these things has never been able to comprehend
any careful and exact reasonings at all upon such subjects, let him in
that case deal with himself by resolution and study, that he may know
better; not with me by quarrellings and wranglings, that I may hold my
peace. Let him, again, who says, when he reads my book, Certainly I
understand what is said, but it is not true, assert, if he pleases,
his own opinion, and refute mine if he is able. And if he do this with
charity and truth, and take the pains to make it known to me (if I am
still alive), I shall then receive the most abundant fruit of this my
labor. And if he cannot inform myself, most willing and glad should I
be that he should inform those whom he can. Yet, for my part, "I
meditate in the law of the Lord," [23] if not "day and night," at
least such short times as I can; and I commit my meditations to
writing, lest they should escape me through forgetfulness; hoping by
the mercy of God that He will make me hold steadfastly all truths of
which I feel certain; "but if in anything I be otherwise minded, that
He will himself reveal even this to me," [24] whether through secret
inspiration and admonition, or through His own plain utterances, or
through the reasonings of my brethren. This I pray for, and this my
trust and desire I commit to Him, who is sufficiently able to keep
those things which He has given me, and to render those which He has
promised.

6. I expect, indeed, that some, who are more dull of understanding,
will imagine that in some parts of my books I have held sentiments
which I have not held, or have not held those which I have. But their
error, as none can be ignorant, ought not to be attributed to me, if
they have deviated into false doctrine through following my steps
without apprehending me, whilst I am compelled to pick my way through
a hard and obscure subject: seeing that neither can any one, in any
way, rightly ascribe the numerous and various errors of heretics to
the holy testimonies themselves of the divine books; although all of
them endeavor to defend out of those same Scriptures their own false
and erroneous opinions. The law of Christ, that is, charity,
admonishes me clearly, and commands me with a sweet constraint, that
when men think that I have held in my books something false which I
have not held, and that same falsehood displeases one and pleases
another, I should prefer to be blamed by him who reprehends the
falsehood, rather than praised by him who praises it. For although I,
who never held the error, am not rightly blamed by the former, yet the
error itself is rightly censured; whilst by the latter neither am I
rightly praised, who am thought to have held that which the truth
censures, nor the sentiment itself, which the truth also censures. Let
us therefore essay the work which we have undertaken in the name of
the Lord.

Footnotes

[21] Ps. cv. 4
[22] [This request of Augustin to his reader, involves an admirable
rule for authorship generally--the desire, namely, that truth be
attained, be it through himself or through others. Milton teaches the
same, when he says that the author must "study and love learning for
itself, not for lucre, or any other end, but the service of God and of
truth, and perhaps that lasting fame and perpetuity of praise, which
God and good men have consented shall be the reward of those whose
published labors advance the good of mankind."--W.G.T.S.]
[23] Ps. i. 2
[24] Phil. iii. 15

Chapter 4.--What the Doctrine of the Catholic Faith is Concerning the
Trinity.

7. All those Catholic expounders of the divine Scriptures, both Old
and New, whom I have been able to read, who have written before me
concerning the Trinity, Who is God, have purposed to teach, according
to the Scriptures, this doctrine, that the Father, and the Son, and
the Holy Spirit intimate a divine unity of one and the same substance
in an indivisible equality; [25] and therefore that they are not three
Gods, but one God: although the Father hath begotten the Son, and so
He who is the Father is not the Son; and the Son is begotten by the
Father, and so He who is the Son is not the Father; and the Holy
Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son, but only the Spirit of the
Father and of the Son, Himself also co-equal with the Father and the
Son, and pertaining to the unity of the Trinity. Yet not that this
Trinity was born of the Virgin Mary, and crucified under Pontius
Pilate, and buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into
heaven, but only the Son. Nor, again, that this Trinity descended in
the form of a dove upon Jesus when He was baptized; [26] nor that, on
the day of Pentecost, after the ascension of the Lord, when "there
came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind," [27] the same
Trinity "sat upon each of them with cloven tongues like as of fire,"
but only the Holy Spirit. Nor yet that this Trinity said from heaven,
"Thou art my Son," [28] whether when He was baptized by John, or when
the three disciples were with Him in the mount, [29] or when the voice
sounded, saying, "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it
again;" [30] but that it was a word of the Father only, spoken to the
Son; although the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as they
are indivisible, so work indivisibly. [31] This is also my faith,
since it is the Catholic faith.

Footnotes

[25] [Augustin teaches the Nicene doctrine of a numerical unity of
essence in distinction from a specific unity. The latter is that of
mankind. In this case there is division of substance--part after part
of the specific nature being separated and formed, by propagation,
into individuals. No human individual contains the whole specific
nature. But in the case of the numerical unity of the Trinity, there
is no division of essence. The whole divine nature is in each divine
person. The three divine persons do not constitute a species--that is,
three divine individuals made by the division and distribution of one
common divine nature--but are three modes or "forms" (Phil. ii. 6) of
one undivided substance, numerically and identically the same in
each.--W.G.T.S.]
[26] Matt. iii. 16
[27] Acts ii. 2, 4
[28] Mark i. 11
[29] Matt. xvii. 5
[30] John xii. 28
[31] [The term Trinity denotes the Divine essence in all three modes.
The term Father (or Son, or Spirit) denotes the essence in only one
mode. Consequently, there is something in the Trinity that cannot be
attributed to any one of the Persons, as such; and something in a
Person that cannot be attributed to the Trinity, as such. Trinality
cannot be ascribed to the first Person; paternity cannot be ascribed
to the Trinity.--W.G.T.S.]

Chapter 5.--Of Difficulties Concerning the Trinity: in What Manner
Three are One God, and How, Working Indivisibly, They Yet Perform Some
Things Severally.

8. Some persons, however, find a difficulty in this faith; when they
hear that the Father is God, and the Son God, and the Holy Spirit God,
and yet that this Trinity is not three Gods, but one God; and they ask
how they are to understand this: especially when it is said that the
Trinity works indivisibly in everything that God works, and yet that a
certain voice of the Father spoke, which is not the voice of the Son;
and that none except the Son was born in the flesh, and suffered, and
rose again, and ascended into heaven; and that none except the Holy
Spirit came in the form of a dove. They wish to understand how the
Trinity uttered that voice which was only of the Father; and how the
same Trinity created that flesh in which the Son only was born of the
Virgin; and how the very same Trinity itself wrought that form of a
dove, in which the Holy Spirit only appeared. Yet, otherwise, the
Trinity does not work indivisibly, but the Father does some things,
the Son other things, and the Holy Spirit yet others: or else, if they
do some things together, some severally, then the Trinity is not
indivisible. It is a difficulty, too, to them, in what manner the Holy
Spirit is in the Trinity, whom neither the Father nor the Son, nor
both, have begotten, although He is the Spirit both of the Father and
of the Son. Since, then, men weary us with asking such questions, let
us unfold to them, as we are able, whatever wisdom God's gift has
bestowed upon our weakness on this subject; neither "let us go on our
way with consuming envy." [32] Should we say that we are not
accustomed to think about such things, it would not be true; yet if we
acknowledge that such subjects commonly dwell in our thoughts, carried
away as we are by the love of investigating the truth, then they
require of us, by the law of charity, to make known to them what we
have herein been able to find out. "Not as though I had already
attained, either were already perfect" (for, if the Apostle Paul, how
much more must I, who lie far beneath his feet, count myself not to
have apprehended!); but, according to my measure, "if I forget those
things that are behind, and reach forth unto those things which are
before, and press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling,"
[33] I am requested to disclose so much of the road as I have already
passed, and the point to which I have reached, whence the course yet
remains to bring me to the end. And those make the request, whom a
generous charity compels me to serve. Needs must too, and God will
grant that, in supplying them with matter to read, I shall profit
myself also; and that, in seeking to reply to their inquiries, I shall
myself likewise find that for which I was inquiring. Accordingly I
have undertaken the task, by the bidding and help of the Lord my God,
not so much of discoursing with authority respecting things I know
already, as of learning those things by piously discoursing of them.

Footnotes

[32] Wisd. vi. 23
[33] Phil. iii. 12-14

Chapter 6.--That the Son is Very God, of the Same Substance with the
Father. Not Only the Father, But the Trinity, is Affirmed to Be
Immortal. All Things are Not from the Father Alone, But Also from the
Son. That the Holy Spirit is Very God, Equal with the Father and the
Son.

9. They who have said that our Lord Jesus Christ is not God, or not
very God, or not with the Father the One and only God, or not truly
immortal because changeable, are proved wrong by the most plain and
unanimous voice of divine testimonies; as, for instance, "In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God." For it is plain that we are to take the Word of God to be the
only Son of God, of whom it is afterwards said, "And the Word was made
flesh, and dwelt among us," on account of that birth of His
incarnation, which was wrought in time of the Virgin. But herein is
declared, not only that He is God, but also that He is of the same
substance with the Father; because, after saying, "And the Word was
God," it is said also, "The same was in the beginning with God: all
things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made." [34]
Not simply "all things;" but only all things that were made, that is;
the whole creature. From which it appears clearly, that He Himself was
not made, by whom all things were made. And if He was not made, then
He is not a creature; but if He is not a creature, then He is of the
same substance with the Father. For all substance that is not God is
creature; and all that is not creature is God. [35] And if the Son is
not of the same substance with the Father, then He is a substance that
was made: and if He is a substance that was made, then all things were
not made by Him; but "all things were made by Him," therefore He is of
one and the same substance with the Father. And so He is not only God,
but also very God. And the same John most expressly affirms this in
his epistle: "For we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given
us an understanding, that we may know the true God, and that we may be
in His true Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life."
[36]

10. Hence also it follows by consequence, that the Apostle Paul did
not say, "Who alone has immortality," of the Father merely; but of the
One and only God, which is the Trinity itself. For that which is
itself eternal life is not mortal according to any changeableness; and
hence the Son of God, because "He is Eternal Life," is also Himself
understood with the Father, where it is said, "Who only hath
immortality." For we, too, are made partakers of this eternal life,
and become, in our own measure, immortal. But the eternal life itself,
of which we are made partakers, is one thing; we ourselves, who, by
partaking of it, shall live eternally, are another. For if He had
said, "Whom in His own time the Father will show, who is the blessed
and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only
hath immortality;" not even so would it be necessarily understood that
the Son is excluded. For neither has the Son separated the Father from
Himself, because He Himself, speaking elsewhere with the voice of
wisdom (for He Himself is the Wisdom of God), [37] says, "I alone
compassed the circuit of heaven." [38] And therefore so much the more
is it not necessary that the words, "Who hath immortality," should be
understood of the Father alone, omitting the Son; when they are said
thus: "That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable,
until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: whom in His own time He
will show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings,
and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light
which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to
whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen." [39] In which words
neither is the Father specially named, nor the Son, nor the Holy
Spirit; but the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and
Lord of lords; that is, the One and only and true God, the Trinity
itself.

11. But perhaps what follows may interfere with this meaning; because
it is said, "Whom no man hath seen, nor can see:" although this may
also be taken as belonging to Christ according to His divinity, which
the Jews did not see, who yet saw and crucified Him in the flesh;
whereas His divinity can in no wise be seen by human sight, but is
seen with that sight with which they who see are no longer men, but
beyond men. Rightly, therefore, is God Himself, the Trinity,
understood to be the "blessed and only Potentate," who "shows the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in His own time." For the words, "Who
only hath immortality," are said in the same way as it is said, "Who
only doeth wondrous things." [40] And I should be glad to know of whom
they take these words to be said. If only of the Father, how then is
that true which the Son Himself says, "For what things soever the
Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise?" Is there any, among
wonderful works, more wonderful than to raise up and quicken the dead?
Yet the same Son saith, "As the Father raiseth up the dead, and
quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will." [41] How,
then, does the Father alone "do wondrous things," when these words
allow us to understand neither the Father only, nor the Son only, but
assuredly the one only true God, that is, the Father, and the Son, and
the Holy Spirit? [42]

12. Also, when the same apostle says, "But to us there is but one God,
the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him," [43] who can doubt
that he speaks of all things which are created; as does John, when he
says, "All things were made by Him"? I ask, therefore, of whom he
speaks in another place: "For of Him, and through Him, and in Him, are
all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen." [44] For if of the
Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, so as to assign each clause
severally to each person: of Him, that is to say, of the Father;
through Him, that is to say, through the Son; in Him, that is to say,
in the Holy Spirit,--it is manifest that the Father, and the Son, and
the Holy Spirit is one God, inasmuch as the words continue in the
singular number, "To whom [45] be glory for ever." For at the
beginning of the passage he does not say, "O the depth of the riches
both of the wisdom and knowledge" of the Father, or of the Son, or of
the Holy Spirit, but "of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" "How
unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who
hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counsellor? Or
who hath first given to Him and it shall be recompensed unto him
again? For of Him, and through Him, and in Him, are all things: to
whom be glory for ever. Amen." [46] But if they will have this to be
understood only of the Father, then in what way are all things by the
Father, as is said here; and all things by the Son, as where it is
said to the Corinthians, "And one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all
things," [47] and as in the Gospel of John, "All things were made by
Him?" For if some things were made by the Father, and some by the Son,
then all things were not made by the Father, nor all things by the
Son; but if all things were made by the Father, and all things by the
Son, then the same things were made by the Father and by the Son. The
Son, therefore, is equal with the Father, and the working of the
Father and the Son is indivisible. Because if the Father made even the
Son, whom certainly the Son Himself did not make, then all things were
not made by the Son; but all things were made by the Son: therefore He
Himself was not made, that with the Father He might make all things
that were made. And the apostle has not refrained from using the very
word itself, but has said most expressly, "Who, being in the form of
God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God;" [48] using here the
name of God specially of the Father; [49] as elsewhere, "But the head
of Christ is God." [50]

13. Similar evidence has been collected also concerning the Holy
Spirit, of which those who have discussed the subject before ourselves
have most fully availed themselves, that He too is God, and not a
creature. But if not a creature, then not only God (for men likewise
are called gods [51] ), but also very God; and therefore absolutely
equal with the Father and the Son, and in the unity of the Trinity
consubstantial and co-eternal. But that the Holy Spirit is not a
creature is made quite plain by that passage above all others, where
we are commanded not to serve the creature, but the Creator; [52] not
in the sense in which we are commanded to "serve" one another by love,
[53] which is in Greek douleuein, but in that in which God alone is
served, which is in Greek latreuein. From whence they are called
idolaters who tender that service to images which is due to God. For
it is this service concerning which it is said, "Thou shalt worship
the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." [54] For this is
found also more distinctly in the Greek Scriptures, which have
latreuseis. Now if we are forbidden to serve the creature with such a
service, seeing that it is written, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy
God, and Him only shalt thou serve" (and hence, too, the apostle
repudiates those who worship and serve the creature more than the
Creator), then assuredly the Holy Spirit is not a creature, to whom
such a service is paid by all the saints; as says the apostle, "For we
are the circumcision, which serve the Spirit of God," [55] which is in
the Greek latreuontes. For even most Latin copies also have it thus,
"We who serve the Spirit of God;" but all Greek ones, or almost all,
have it so. Although in some Latin copies we find, not "We worship the
Spirit of God," but, "We worship God in the Spirit." But let those who
err in this case, and refuse to give up to the more weighty authority,
tell us whether they find this text also varied in the mss.: "Know ye
not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you,
which ye have of God?" Yet what can be more senseless or more profane,
than that any one should dare to say that the members of Christ are
the temple of one who, in their opinion, is a creature inferior to
Christ? For the apostle says in another place, "Your bodies are
members of Christ." But if the members of Christ are also the temple
of the Holy Spirit, then the Holy Spirit is not a creature; because we
must needs owe to Him, of whom our body is the temple, that service
wherewith God only is to be served, which in Greek is called latreia.
And accordingly the apostle says, "Therefore glorify God in your
body." [56]

Footnotes

[34] John i. 1, 14, 2, 3
[35] [Augustin here postulates the theistic doctrines of two
substances--infinite and finite; in contradiction to the postulate of
pantheism, that there is only one substance--the infinite.--W.G.T.S.]
[36] 1 John v. 20
[37] 1 Cor. i. 24
[38] Ecclus. xxiv. 5
[39] 1 Tim. vi. 14-16
[40] Ps. lxxii. 18
[41] John v. 19, 21
[42] [Nothing is more important, in order to a correct interpretation
of the New Testament, than a correct explanation of the term God.
Sometimes it denotes the Trinity, and sometimes a person of the
Trinity. The context always shows which it is. The examples given here
by Augustin are only a few out of many.--W.G.T.S.]
[43] 1 Cor. viii. 6
[44] Rom. xi. 36
[45] Ipsi.
[46] Rom. xi. 33-36
[47] 1 Cor. viii. 6
[48] Phil. ii. 6
[49] [It is not generally safe to differ from Augustin in trinitarian
exegesis. But in Phil. ii. 6 "God" must surely denote the Divine
Essence, not the first Person of the Essence. St. Paul describes
"Christ Jesus" as "subsisting" (huparchon) originally, that is prior
to incarnation, "in a form of God"(en morphe theou), and because he so
subsisted, as being "equal with God." The word morphe is anarthrous in
the text: a form, not the form, as the A.V and R.V. render. St. Paul
refers to one of three "forms" of God--namely, that particular form of
Sonship, which is peculiar to the second person of the Godhead. Had
the apostle employed the article with morphe, the implication would be
that there is only one "form of God"--that is, only one person in the
Divine Essence. If then theou, in this place, denotes the Father, as
Augustin says, St. Paul would teach that the Logos subsisted "in a
form of the Father," which would imply that the Father had more than
one "form," or else (if morphe be rendered with the article) that the
Logos subsisted in the "form" of the Father, neither of which is true.
But if "God," in this place, denotes the Divine Essence, then St. Paul
teaches that the unincarnate Logos subsisted in a particular "form" of
the Essence--the Father and Spirit subsisting in other "forms" of it.
The student will observe that Augustin is careful to teach that the
Logos, when he took on him "a form of a servant," did not lay aside "a
form of God." He understands the kenosis (ekenose) to be, the humbling
of the divinity by its union with the humanity, not the exinanition of
it in the extremest sense of entirely divesting himself of the
divinity, nor the less extreme sense of a total non-use of it during
the humiliation.--W.G.T.S.]
[50] 1 Cor. xi. 3
[51] Ps. lxxxii. 6
[52] Rom. i. 25
[53] Gal. v. 13
[54] Deut. vi. 13
[55] Phil. iii. 3 (Vulgate, etc.).
[56] 1 Cor. vi. 19, 15, 20

Chapter 7.--In What Manner the Son is Less Than the Father, and Than
Himself.

14. In these and like testimonies of the divine Scriptures, by free
use of which, as I have said, our predecessors exploded such
sophistries or errors of the heretics, the unity and equality of the
Trinity are intimated to our faith. But because, on account of the
incarnation of the Word of God for the working out of our salvation,
that the man Christ Jesus might be the Mediator between God and men,
[57] many things are so said in the sacred books as to signify, or
even most expressly declare, the Father to be greater than the Son;
men have erred through a want of careful examination or consideration
of the whole tenor of the Scriptures, and have endeavored to transfer
those things which are said of Jesus Christ according to the flesh, to
that substance of His which was eternal before the incarnation, and is
eternal. They say, for instance, that the Son is less than the Father,
because it is written that the Lord Himself said, "My Father is
greater than I." [58] But the truth shows that after the same sense
the Son is less also than Himself; for how was He not made less also
than Himself, who "emptied [59] Himself, and took upon Him the form of
a servant?" For He did not so take the form of a servant as that He
should lose the form of God, in which He was equal to the Father. If,
then, the form of a servant was so taken that the form of God was not
lost, since both in the form of a servant and in the form of God He
Himself is the same only-begotten Son of God the Father, in the form
of God equal to the Father, in the form of a servant the Mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; is there any one who cannot
perceive that He Himself in the form of God is also greater than
Himself, but yet likewise in the form of a servant less than Himself?
And not, therefore, without cause the Scripture says both the one and
the other, both that the Son is equal to the Father, and that the
Father is greater than the Son. For there is no confusion when the
former is understood as on account of the form of God, and the latter
as on account of the form of a servant. And, in truth, this rule for
clearing the question through all the sacred Scriptures is set forth
in one chapter of an epistle of the Apostle Paul, where this
distinction is commended to us plainly enough. For he says, "Who,
being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God;
but emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was
made in the likeness of men: and was found in fashion [60] as a man."
[61] The Son of God, then, is equal to God the Father in nature, but
less in "fashion." [62] For in the form of a servant which He took He
is less than the Father; but in the form of God, in which also He was
before He took the form of a servant, He is equal to the Father. In
the form of God He is the Word, "by whom all things are made;" [63]
but in the form of a servant He was "made of a woman, made under the
law, to redeem them that were under the law." [64] In like manner, in
the form of God He made man; in the form of a servant He was made man.
For if the Father alone had made man without the Son, it would not
have been written, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness."
[65] Therefore, because the form of God took the form of a servant,
both is God and both is man; but both God, on account of God who
takes; and both man, on account of man who is taken. For neither by
that taking is the one of them turned and changed into the other: the
Divinity is not changed into the creature, so as to cease to be
Divinity; nor the creature into Divinity, so as to cease to be
creature.

Footnotes

Chapter 8.--The Texts of Scripture Explained Respecting the Subjection
of the Son to the Father, Which Have Been Misunderstood. Christ Will
Not So Give Up the Kingdom to the Father, as to Take It Away from
Himself. The Beholding Him is the Promised End of All Actions. The
Holy Spirit is Sufficient to Our Blessedness Equally with the Father.

15. As for that which the apostle says, "And when all things shall be
subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him
that put all things under Him:" either the text has been so turned,
lest any one should think that the "fashion" [66] of Christ, which He
took according to the human creature, was to be transformed hereafter
into the Divinity, or (to express it more precisely) the Godhead
itself, who is not a creature, but is the unity of the Trinity,--a
nature incorporeal, and unchangeable, and consubstantial, and
co-eternal with itself; or if any one contends, as some have thought,
that the text, "Then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him
that put all things under Him," is so turned in order that one may
believe that very "subjection" to be a change and conversion hereafter
of the creature into the substance or essence itself of the Creator,
that is, that that which had been the substance of a creature shall
become the substance of the Creator;--such an one at any rate admits
this, of which in truth there is no possible doubt, that this had not
yet taken place, when the Lord said, "My Father is greater than I."
For He said this not only before He ascended into heaven, but also
before He had suffered, and had risen from the dead. But they who
think that the human nature in Him is to be changed and converted into
the substance of the Godhead, and that it was so said, "Then shall the
Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under
Him,"--as if to say, Then also the Son of man Himself, and the human
nature taken by the Word of God, shall be changed into the nature of
Him who put all things under Him,--must also think that this will then
take place, when, after the day of judgment, "He shall have delivered
up the kingdom to God, even the Father." And hence even still,
according to this opinion, the Father is greater than that form of a
servant which was taken of the Virgin. But if some affirm even
further, that the man Christ Jesus has already been changed into the
substance of God, at least they cannot deny that the human nature
still remained, when He said before His passion, "For my Father is
greater than I;" whence there is no question that it was said in this
sense, that the Father is greater than the form of a servant, to whom
in the form of God the Son is equal. Nor let any one, hearing what the
apostle says, "But when He saith all things are put under Him, it is
manifest that He is excepted which did put all things under Him," [67]
think the words, that He hath put all things under the Son, to be so
understood of the Father, as that He should not think that the Son
Himself put all things under Himself. For this the apostle plainly
declares, when he says to the Philippians, "For our conversation is in
heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like
unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able
even to subdue [68] all things unto Himself." [69] For the working of
the Father and of the Son is indivisible. Otherwise, neither hath the
Father Himself put all things under Himself, but the Son hath put all
things under Him, who delivers the kingdom to Him, and puts down all
rule and all authority and power. For these words are spoken of the
Son: "When He shall have delivered up," says the apostle, "the kingdom
to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down [70] all rule,
and all authority, and all power." For the same that puts down, also
makes subject.

16. Neither may we think that Christ shall so give up the kingdom to
God, even the Father, as that He shall take it away from Himself. For
some vain talkers have thought even this. For when it is said, "He
shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father," He
Himself is not excluded; because He is one God together with the
Father. But that word "until" deceives those who are careless readers
of the divine Scriptures, but eager for controversies. For the text
continues, "For He must reign, until He hath put all enemies under His
feet;" [71] as though, when He had so put them, He would no more
reign. Neither do they perceive that this is said in the same way as
that other text, "His heart is established: He shall not be afraid,
until He see His desire upon His enemies." [72] For He will not then
be afraid when He has seen it. What then means, "When He shall have
delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father," as though God and
the Father has not the kingdom now? But because He is hereafter to
bring all the just, over whom now, living by faith, the Mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, reigns, to that sight which
the same apostle calls "face to face;" [73] therefore the words, "When
He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father," are
as much as to say, When He shall have brought believers to the
contemplation of God, even the Father. For He says, "All things are
delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the
Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to
whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." [74] The Father will then be
revealed by the Son, "when He shall have put down all rule, and all
authority, and all power;" that is, in such wise that there shall be
no more need of any economy of similitudes, by means of angelic
rulers, and authorities, and powers. Of whom that is not unfitly
understood, which is said in the Song of Songs to the bride, "We will
make thee borders [75] of gold, with studs of silver, while the King
sitteth at His table;" [76] that is, as long as Christ is in His
secret place: since "your life is hid with Christ in God; when Christ,
who is our [77] life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him
in glory." [78] Before which time, "we see now through a glass, in an
enigma," that is, in similitudes, "but then face to face." [79]

17. For this contemplation is held forth to us as the end of all
actions, and the everlasting fullness of joy. For "we are the sons of
God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that,
when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He
is." [80] For that which He said to His servant Moses, "I am that I
am; thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me
to you;" [81] this it is which we shall contemplate when we shall live
in eternity. For so it is said, "And this is life eternal, that they
might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast
sent." [82] This shall be when the Lord shall have come, and "shall
have brought to light the hidden things of darkness;" [83] when the
darkness of this present mortality and corruption shall have passed
away. Then will be our morning, which is spoken of in the Psalm, "In
the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee, and will contemplate
Thee." [84] Of this contemplation I understand it to be said, "When He
shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father;" that is,
when He shall have brought the just, over whom now, living by faith,
the Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, reigns, to the
contemplation of God, even the Father. If herein I am foolish, let him
who knows better correct me; to me at least the case seems as I have
said. [85] For we shall not seek anything else, when we shall have
come to the contemplation of Him. But that contemplation is not yet,
so long as our joy is in hope. For "hope that is seen is not hope: for
what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we
see not, then do we with patience wait for it," [86] viz. "as long as
the King sitteth at His table." [87] Then will take place that which
is written, "In Thy presence is fullness of joy." [88] Nothing more
than that joy will be required; because there will be nothing more
than can be required. For the Father will be manifested to us, and
that will suffice for us. And this much Philip had well understood, so
that he said to the Lord, "Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us."
But he had not yet understood that he himself was able to say this
very same thing in this way also: Lord, show Thyself to us, and it
sufficeth us. For, that he might understand this, the Lord replied to
him, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known
me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father." But because He
intended him, before he could see this, to live by faith, He went on
to say, "Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in
me?" [89] For "while we are at home in the body, we are absent from
the Lord: for we walk by faith, not by sight." [90] For contemplation
is the recompense of faith, for which recompense our hearts are
purified by faith; as it is written, "Purifying their hearts by
faith." [91] And that our hearts are to be purified for this
contemplation, is proved above all by this text, "Blessed are the pure
in heart, for they shall see God." [92] And that this is life eternal,
God says in the Psalm, "With long life will I satisfy him, and show
him my salvation." [93] Whether, therefore, we hear, Show us the Son;
or whether we hear, Show us the Father; it is even all one, since
neither can be manifested without the other. For they are one, as He
also Himself says, "My Father and I are one." [94] Finally, on account
of this very indivisibility, it suffices that sometimes the Father
alone, or the Son alone, should be named, as hereafter to fill us with
the joy of His countenance.

18. Neither is the Spirit of either thence excluded, that is, the
Spirit of the Father and of the Son; which Holy Spirit is specially
called "the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive." [95] For
to have the fruition of God the Trinity, after whose image we are
made, is indeed the fullness of our joy, than which there is no
greater. On this account the Holy Spirit is sometimes spoken of as if
He alone sufficed to our blessedness: and He does alone so suffice,
because He cannot be divided from the Father and the Son; as the
Father alone is sufficient, because He cannot be divided from the Son
and the Holy Spirit; and the Son alone is sufficient because He cannot
be divided from the Father and the Holy Spirit. For what does He mean
by saying, "If ye love me, keep my commandments; and I will pray the
Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide
with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot
receive," [96] that is, the lovers of the world? For "the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God." [97] But it may
perhaps seem, further, as if the words, "And I will pray the Father,
and He shall give you another Comforter," were so said as if the Son
alone were not sufficient. And that place so speaks of the Spirit, as
if He alone were altogether sufficient: "When He, the Spirit of truth,
is come, He will guide you into all truth." [98] Pray, therefore, is
the Son here excluded, as if He did not teach all truth, or as if the
Holy Spirit were to fill up that which the Son could not fully teach?
Let them say then, if it pleases them, that the Holy Spirit is greater
than the Son, whom they are wont to call less. Or is it, forsooth,
because it is not said, He alone,--or, No one else except
Himself--will guide you into all truth, that they allow that the Son
also may be believed to teach together with Him? In that case the
apostle has excluded the Son from knowing those things which are of
God, where he says, "Even so the things of God knoweth no one, but the
Spirit of God:" [99] so that these perverse men might, upon this
ground, go on to say that none but the Holy Spirit teaches even the
Son the things of God, as the greater teaches the less; to whom the
Son Himself ascribes so much as to say, "But because I have said these
things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell
you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not
away, the Comforter will not come unto you." [100]

Chapter 9.--All are Sometimes Understood in One Person.

But this is said, not on account of any inequality of the Word of God
and of the Holy Spirit, but as though the presence of the Son of man
with them would be a hindrance to the coming of Him, who was not less,
because He did not "empty Himself, taking upon Him the form of a
servant," [101] as the Son did. It was necessary, then, that the form
of a servant should be taken away from their eyes, because, through
gazing upon it, they thought that alone which they saw to be Christ.
Hence also is that which is said, "If ye loved me, ye would rejoice
because I said, `I go unto the Father; for my Father is greater than
I:'" [102] that is, on that account it is necessary for me to go to
the Father, because, whilst you see me thus, you hold me to be less
than the Father through that which you see; and so, being taken up
with the creature and the "fashion" which I have taken upon me, you do
not perceive the equality which I have with the Father. Hence, too, is
this: "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father." [103]
For touch, as it were, puts a limit to their conception, and He
therefore would not have the thought of the heart, directed towards
Himself, to be so limited as that He should be held to be only that
which He seemed to be. But the "ascension to the Father" meant, so to
appear as He is equal to the Father, that the limit of the sight which
sufficeth us might be attained there. Sometimes also it is said of the
Son alone, that He himself sufficeth, and the whole reward of our love
and longing is held forth as in the sight of Him. For so it is said,
"He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth
me; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father; and I will love
him, and will manifest myself to him." [104] Pray, because He has not
here said, And I will show the Father also to him, has He therefore
excluded the Father? On the contrary, because it is true, "I and my
Father are one," when the Father is manifested, the Son also, who is
in Him, is manifested; and when the Son is manifested, the Father
also, who is in Him, is manifested. As, therefore, when it is said,
"And I will manifest myself to him," it is understood that He
manifests also the Father; so likewise in that which is said, "When He
shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father," it is
understood that He does not take it away from Himself; since, when He
shall bring believers to the contemplation of God, even the Father,
doubtless He will bring them to the contemplation of Himself, who has
said, "And I will manifest myself to him." And so, consequently, when
Judas had said to Him, "Lord, how is it that Thou wilt manifest
Thyself unto us, and not unto the world?" Jesus answered and said to
him, "If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love
him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." [105]
Behold, that He manifests not only Himself to him by whom He is loved,
because He comes to him together with the Father, and abides with him.

19. Will it perhaps be thought, that when the Father and the Son make
their abode with him who loves them, the Holy Spirit is excluded from
that abode? What, then, is that which is said above of the Holy
Spirit: "Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not: but
ye know Him; for He abideth with you, and is in you"? He, therefore,
is not excluded from that abode, of whom it is said, "He abideth with
you, and is in you;" unless, perhaps, any one be so senseless as to
think, that when the Father and the Son have come that they may make
their abode with him who loves them, the Holy Spirit will depart
thence, and (as it were) give place to those who are greater. But the
Scripture itself meets this carnal idea; for it says a little above:
"I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that
He may abide with you for ever." [106] He will not therefore depart
when the Father and the Son come, but will be in the same abode with
them eternally; because neither will He come without them, nor they
without Him. But in order to intimate the Trinity, some things are
separately affirmed, the Persons being also each severally named; and
yet are not to be understood as though the other Persons were
excluded, on account of the unity of the same Trinity and the One
substance and Godhead of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit. [107]

Footnotes

[101] Phil. ii. 7
[102] John xiv. 28
[103] John xx. 17
[104] John xiv. 21
[105] John xiv. 22, 23
[106] John xiv. 16-23
[107] [An act belonging eminently and officially to a particular
trinitarian person is not performed to the total exclusion of the
other persons, because of the numerical unity of essence. The whole
undivided essence is in each person; consequently, what the essence in
one of its personal modes, or forms, does officially and eminently, is
participated in by the essence in its other modes or forms. Hence the
interchange of persons in Scripture. Though creation is officially the
Father's work, yet the Son creates (Col. i. 16; Heb. i. 3). The name
Saviour is given to the Father (1 Tim. i. 1). Judgment belongs
officially to the Son (John v. 22; Matt xxv. 31); yet the Father
judgeth (1 Pet. i. 17). The Father raises Christ (Acts xiii. 30); yet
Christ raises himself (John x. 18; Acts x. 41; Rom. xiv.
9).--W.G.T.S.]

Chapter 10.--In What Manner Christ Shall Deliver Up the Kingdom to
God, Even the Father. The Kingdom Having Been Delivered to God, Even
the Father, Christ Will Not Then Make Intercession for Us.

20. Our Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, will so deliver up the kingdom
to God, even the Father, Himself not being thence excluded, nor the
Holy Spirit, when He shall bring believers to the contemplation of
God, wherein is the end of all good actions, and everlasting rest, and
joy which never will be taken from us. For He signifies this in that
which He says: "I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice;
and your joy no man taketh from you." [108] Mary, sitting at the feet
of the Lord, and earnestly listening to His word, foreshowed a
similitude of this joy; resting as she did from all business, and
intent upon the truth, according to that manner of which this life is
capable, by which, however, to prefigure that which shall be for
eternity. For while Martha, her sister, was cumbered about necessary
business, which, although good and useful, yet, when rest shall have
succeeded, is to pass away, she herself was resting in the word of the
Lord. And so the Lord replied to Martha, when she complained that her
sister did not help her: "Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall
not be taken away from her." [109] He did not say that Martha was
acting a bad part; but that "best part that shall not be taken away."
For that part which is occupied in the ministering to a need shall be
"taken away" when the need itself has passed away. Since the reward of
a good work that will pass away is rest that will not pass away. In
that contemplation, therefore, God will be all in all; because nothing
else but Himself will be required, but it will be sufficient to be
enlightened by and to enjoy Him alone. And so he in whom "the Spirit
maketh intercession with groanings which cannot be uttered," [110]
says, "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that I will seek after;
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to
contemplate the beauty of the Lord." [111] For we shall then
contemplate God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, when the
Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, shall have
delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, so as no longer to
make intercession for us, as our Mediator and Priest, Son of God and
Son of man; [112] but that He Himself too, in so far as He is a Priest
that has taken the form of a servant for us, shall be put under Him
who has put all things under Him, and under whom He has put all
things: so that, in so far as He is God, He with Him will have put us
under Himself; in so far as He is a Priest, He with us will be put
under Him. [113] And therefore as the [incarnate] Son is both God and
man, it is rather to be said that the manhood in the Son is another
substance [from the Son], than that the Son in the Father [is another
substance from the Father]; just as the carnal nature of my soul is
more another substance in relation to my soul itself, although in one
and the same man, than the soul of another man is in relation to my
soul. [114]

21. When, therefore, He "shall have delivered up the kingdom to God,
even the Father,"--that is, when He shall have brought those who
believe and live by faith, for whom now as Mediator He maketh
intercession, to that contemplation, for the obtaining of which we
sigh and groan, and when labor and groaning shall have passed
away,--then, since the kingdom will have been delivered up to God,
even the Father, He will no more make intercession for us. And this He
signifies, when He says: "These things have I spoken unto you in
similitudes; [115] but the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto
you in similitudes, [116] but I shall declare [117] to you plainly of
the Father:" that is, they will not then be "similitudes," when the
sight shall be "face to face." For this it is which He says, "But I
will declare to you plainly of the Father;" as if He said I will
plainly show you the Father. For He says, I will "declare" to you,
because He is His word. For He goes on to say, "At that day ye shall
ask in my name; and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father
for you: for the Father Himself loveth you, because ye have loved me,
and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the
Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go
to the Father." [118] What is meant by "I came forth from the Father,"
unless this, that I have not appeared in that form in which I am equal
to the Father, but otherwise, that is, as less than the Father, in the
creature which I have taken upon me? And what is meant by "I am come
into the world," unless this, that I have manifested to the eyes even
of sinners who love this world, the form of a servant which I took,
making myself of no reputation? And what is meant by "Again, I leave
the world," unless this, that I take away from the sight of the lovers
of this world that which they have seen? And what is meant by "I go to
the Father," unless this, that I teach those who are my faithful ones
to understand me in that being in which I am equal to the Father?
Those who believe this will be thought worthy of being brought by
faith to sight, that is, to that very sight, in bringing them to which
He is said to "deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father." For
His faithful ones, whom He has redeemed with His blood, are called His
kingdom, for whom He now intercedes; but then, making them to abide in
Himself there, where He is equal to the Father, He will no longer pray
the Father for them. "For," He says, "the Father Himself loveth you."
For indeed He "prays," in so far as He is less than the Father; but as
He is equal with the Father, He with the Father grants. Wherefore He
certainly does not exclude Himself from that which He says, "The
Father Himself loveth you;" but He means it to be understood after
that manner which I have above spoken of, and sufficiently
intimated,--namely, that for the most part each Person of the Trinity
is so named, that the other Persons also may be understood.
Accordingly, "For the Father Himself loveth you," is so said that by
consequence both the Son and the Holy Spirit also may be understood:
not that He does not now love us, who spared not His own Son, but
delivered Him up for us all; [119] but God loves us, such as we shall
be, not such as we are, for such as they are whom He loves, such are
they whom He keeps eternally; which shall then be, when He who now
maketh intercession for us shall have "delivered up the kingdom to
God, even the Father," so as no longer to ask the Father, because the
Father Himself loveth us. But for what deserving, except of faith, by
which we believe before we see that which is promised? For by this
faith we shall arrive at sight; so that He may love us, being such, as
He loves us in order that we may become; and not such, as He hates us
because we are, and exhorts and enables us to wish not to be always.

Footnotes

[108] John xvi. 22
[109] Luke x. 30-42
[110] Rom. viii. 26
[111] Ps. xxvii. 4
[112] [The redeemed must forever stand in the relation of redeemed
sinners to their Redeemer. Thus standing, they will forever need
Christ's sacrifice and intercession in respect to their past sins in
this earthly state. But as in the heavenly state they are sinless, and
are incurring no new guilt, it is true that they do not require the
fresh application of atoning blood for new sins, nor Christ's
intercession for such. This is probably what Augustin means by saying
that Christ "no longer makes intercession for us," when he has
delivered up the kingdom to God. When the Mediator has surrendered his
commission, he ceases to redeem sinners from death, while yet he
continues forever to be the Head of those whom he has redeemed, and
their High Priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek (Heb. vii.
17.)--W.G.T.S.]
[113] 1 Cor. xv. 24-28
[114] [The animal soul is different in kind from the rational soul
though both constitute one person; while the rational soul of a man is
the same in kind with that of another man. Similarly, says Augustin,
there is a difference in kind between the human nature and the divine
nature of Christ, though constituting one theanthropic person, while
the divine nature of the Son is the same in substance with that of the
Father, though constituting two different persons, the Father and
Son.--W.G.T.S.]
[115] Proverbs--A.V.
[116] Proverbs--A.V.
[117] Show--A.V.
[118] John xvi. 25-28
[119] Rom. viii. 32

Chapter 11.--By What Rule in the Scriptures It is Understood that the
Son is Now Equal and Now Less.

22. Wherefore, having mastered this rule for interpreting the
Scriptures concerning the Son of God, that we are to distinguish in
them what relates to the form of God, in which He is equal to the
Father, and what to the form of a servant which He took, in which He
is less than the Father; we shall not be disquieted by apparently
contrary and mutually repugnant sayings of the sacred books. For both
the Son and the Holy Spirit, according to the form of God, are equal
to the Father, because neither of them is a creature, as we have
already shown: but according to the form of a servant He is less than
the Father, because He Himself has said, "My Father is greater than
I;" [120] and He is less than Himself, because it is said of Him, He
emptied Himself;" [121] and He is less than the Holy Spirit, because
He Himself says, "Whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it
shall be forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost,
it shall not be forgiven Him." [122] And in the Spirit too He wrought
miracles, saying: "But if I with the Spirit of God cast out devils, no
doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you." [123] And in Isaiah He
says,--in the lesson which He Himself read in the synagogue, and
showed without a scruple of doubt to be fulfilled concerning
Himself,--"The Spirit of the Lord God," He says, "is upon me: because
He hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek He hath sent
me to proclaim liberty to the captives," [124] etc.: for the doing of
which things He therefore declares Himself to be "sent," because the
Spirit of God is upon Him. According to the form of God, all things
were made by Him; [125] according to the form of a servant, He was
Himself made of a woman, made under the law. [126] According to the
form of God, He and the Father are one; [127] according to the form of
a servant, He came not to do His own will, but the will of Him that
sent Him. [128] According to the form of God, "As the Father hath life
in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself;"
[129] according to the form of a servant, His "soul is sorrowful even
unto death;" and, "O my Father," He says, "if it be possible, let this
cup pass from me." [130] According to the form of God, "He is the True
God, and eternal life;" [131] according to the form of a servant, "He
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." [132] --23.
According to the form of God, all things that the Father hath are His,
[133] and "All mine," He says, "are Thine, and Thine are mine;" [134]
according to the form of a servant, the doctrine is not His own, but
His that sent Him. [135]

Footnotes

[120] John xiv. 28
[121] Phil. ii. 7
[122] Matt. xii. 32
[123] Matt. xii. 28
[124] Isa. lxi. 1; Luke iv. 18, 19
[125] John i. 3
[126] Gal. iv. 4
[127] John x. 30
[128] John vi. 38
[129] John v. 26. [In communicating the Divine Essence to the Son, in
eternal generation, the essence is communicated with all its
attributes. Self existence is one of these attributes. In this way,
the Father "gives to the Son to have life in himself," when he makes
common (koinonein), between Himself and the Son, the one Divine
Essence.--W.G.T.S.]
[130] Matt. xxvi. 38, 39
[131] 1 John v. 20
[132] Phil. ii. 8
[133] John xvii. 15
[134] John xvii. 10
[135] John vii. 16

Chapter 12.--In What Manner the Son is Said Not to Know the Day and
the Hour Which the Father Knows. Some Things Said of Christ According
to the Form of God, Other Things According to the Form of a Servant.
In What Way It is of Christ to Give the Kingdom, in What Not of
Christ. Christ Will Both Judge and Not Judge.

Again, "Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels
which are in heaven; neither the Son, but the Father." [136] For He is
ignorant of this, as making others ignorant; that is, in that He did
not so know as at that time to show His disciples: [137] as it was
said to Abraham, "Now I know that thou fearest God," [138] that is,
now I have caused thee to know it; because he himself, being tried in
that temptation, became known to himself. For He was certainly going
to tell this same thing to His disciples at the fitting time; speaking
of which yet future as if past, He says, "Henceforth I call you not
servants, but friends; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord
doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard
of my Father I have made known unto you;" [139] which He had not yet
done, but spoke as though He had already done it, because He certainly
would do it. For He says to the disciples themselves, "I have yet many
things to say unto you; but ye cannot bear them now." [140] Among
which is to be understood also, "Of the day and hour." For the apostle
also says, "I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus
Christ, and Him crucified;" [141] because he was speaking to those who
were not able to receive higher things concerning the Godhead of
Christ. To whom also a little while after he says, "I could not speak
unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal." [142] He was
"ignorant," therefore, among them of that which they were not able to
know from him. And that only he said that he knew, which it was
fitting that they should know from him. In short, he knew among the
perfect what he knew not among babes; for he there says: "We speak
wisdom among them that are perfect." [143] For a man is said not to
know what he hides, after that kind of speech, after which a ditch is
called blind which is hidden. For the Scriptures do not use any other
kind of speech than may be found in use among men, because they speak
to men.

24. According to the form of God, it is said "Before all the hills He
begat me," [144] that is, before all the loftinesses of things created
and, "Before the dawn I begat Thee," [145] that is, before all times
and temporal things: but according to the form of a servant, it is
said, "The Lord created me in the beginning of His ways." [146]
Because, according to the form of God, He said, "I am the truth;" and
according to the form of a servant, "I am the way." [147] For, because
He Himself, being the first-begotten of the dead, [148] made a passage
to the kingdom of God to life eternal for His Church, to which He is
so the Head as to make the body also immortal, therefore He was
"created in the beginning of the ways" of God in His work. For,
according to the form of God, He is the beginning, [149] that also
speaketh unto us, in which "beginning" God created the heaven and the
earth; [150] but according to the form of a servant, "He is a
bridegroom coming out of His chamber." [151] According to the form of
God, "He is the first-born of every creature, and He is before all
things and by him all things consist;" according to the form of a
servant, "He is the head of the body, the Church." [152] According to
the form of God, "He is the Lord of glory." [153] From which it is
evident that He Himself glorifies His saints: for, "Whom He did
predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also
justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified." [154] Of
Him accordingly it is said, that He justifieth the ungodly; [155] of
Him it is said, that He is just and a justifier. [156] If, therefore,
He has also glorified those whom He has justified, He who justifies,
Himself also glorifies; who is, as I have said, the Lord of glory.
Yet, according to the form of a servant, He replied to His disciples,
when inquiring about their own glorification: "To sit on my right hand
and on my left is not mine to give, but [it shall be given to them]
for whom it is prepared by my Father." [157]

25. But that which is prepared by His Father is prepared also by the
Son Himself, because He and the Father are one. [158] For we have
already shown, by many modes of speech in the divine Scriptures, that,
in this Trinity, what is said of each is also said of all, on account
of the indivisible working of the one and same substance. As He also
says of the Holy Spirit, "If I depart, I will send Him unto you."
[159] He did not say, We will send; but in such way as if the Son only
should send Him, and not the Father; while yet He says in another
place, "These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with
you; but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will
send in my name, He shall teach you all things." [160] Here again it
is so said as if the Son also would not send Him, but the Father only.
As therefore in these texts, so also where He says, "But for them for
whom it is prepared by my Father," He meant it to be understood that
He Himself, with the Father, prepares seats of glory for those for
whom He will. But some one may say: There, when He spoke of the Holy
Spirit, He so says that He Himself will send Him, as not to deny that
the Father will send Him; and in the other place, He so says that the
Father will send Him, as not to deny that He will do so Himself; but
here He expressly says, "It is not mine to give," and so goes on to
say that these things are prepared by the Father. But this is the very
thing which we have already laid down to be said according to the form
of a servant: viz., that we are so to understand "It is not mine to
give," as if it were said, This is not in the power of man to give;
that so He may be understood to give it through that wherein He is God
equal to the Father. "It is not mine," He says, "to give;" that is, I
do not give these things by human power, but "to those for whom it is
prepared by my Father;" but then take care you understand also, that
if "all things which the Father hath are mine," [161] then this
certainly is mine also, and I with the Father have prepared these
things.

26. For I ask again, in what manner this is said, "If any man hear not
my words, I will not judge him?" [162] For perhaps He has said here,
"I will not judge him," in the same sense as there, "It is not mine to
give." But what follows here? "I came not," He says, "to judge the
world, but to save the world;" and then He adds, "He that rejecteth
me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him." Now here
we should understand the Father, unless He had added, "The word that I
have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." Well, then,
will neither the Son judge, because He says, "I will not judge him,"
nor the Father, but the word which the Son hath spoken? Nay, but hear
what yet follows: "For I," He says, "have not spoken of myself; but
the Father which sent me, He gave me a commandment, what I should say,
and what I should speak; and I know that His commandment is life
everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said
unto me, so I speak." If therefore the Son judges not, but "the word
which the Son hath spoken;" and the word which the Son hath spoken
therefore judges, because the Son "hath not spoken of Himself, but the
Father who sent Him gave Him a commandment what He should say, and
what He should speak:" then the Father assuredly judges, whose word it
is which the Son hath spoken; and the same Son Himself is the very
Word of the Father. For the commandment of the Father is not one
thing, and the word of the Father another; for He hath called it both
a word and a commandment. Let us see, therefore, whether perchance,
when He says, "I have not spoken of myself," He meant to be understood
thus,--I am not born of myself. For if He speaks the word of the
Father, then He speaks Himself, [163] because He is Himself the Word
of the Father. For ordinarily He says, "The Father gave to me;" by
which He means it to be understood that the Father begat Him: not that
He gave anything to Him, already existing and not possessing it; but
that the very meaning of, To have given that He might have, is, To
have begotten that He might be. For it is not, as with the creature so
with the Son of God before the incarnation and before He took upon Him
our flesh, the Only-begotten by whom all things were made; that He is
one thing, and has another: but He is in such way as to be what He
has. And this is said more plainly, if any one is fit to receive it,
in that place where He says: "For as the Father hath life in Himself,
so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself." [164] For He did
not give to Him, already existing and not having life, that He should
have life in Himself; inasmuch as, in that He is, He is life.
Therefore "He gave to the Son to have life in Himself" means, He begat
the Son to be unchangeable life, which is life eternal. Since,
therefore, the Word of God is the Son of God, and the Son of God is
"the true God and eternal life," [165] as John says in his Epistle; so
here, what else are we to acknowledge when the Lord says, "The word
which I have spoken, the same shall judge him at the last day," [166]
and calls that very word the word of the Father and the commandment of
the Father, and that very commandment everlasting life?" "And I know,"
He says, "that His commandment is life everlasting."

27. I ask, therefore, how we are to understand, "I will not judge him;
but the Word which I have spoken shall judge him:" which appears from
what follows to be so said, as if He would say, I will not judge; but
the Word of the Father will judge. But the Word of the Father is the
Son of God Himself. Is it to be so understood: I will not judge, but I
will judge? How can this be true, unless in this way: viz., I will not
judge by human power, because I am the Son of man; but I will judge by
the power of the Word, because I am the Son of God? Or if it still
seems contradictory and inconsistent to say, I will not judge, but I
will judge; what shall we say of that place where He says, "My
doctrine is not mine?" How "mine," when "not mine?" For He did not
say, This doctrine is not mine, but "My doctrine is not mine:" that
which He called His own, the same He called not His own. How can this
be true, unless He has called it His own in one relation; not His own,
in another? According to the form of God, His own; according to the
form of a servant, not His own. For when He says, "It is not mine, but
His that sent me," [167] He makes us recur to the Word itself. For the
doctrine of the Father is the Word of the Father, which is the Only
Son. And what, too, does that mean, "He that believeth on me,
believeth not on me?" [168] How believe on Him, yet not believe on
Him? How can so opposite and inconsistent a thing be
understood--"Whoso believeth on me," He says, "believeth not on me,
but on Him that sent me;"--unless you so understand it, Whoso
believeth on me believeth not on that which he sees, lest our hope
should be in the creature; but on Him who took the creature, whereby
He might appear to human eyes, and so might cleanse our hearts by
faith, to contemplate Himself as equal to the Father? So that in
turning the attention of believers to the Father, and saying,
"Believeth not on me, but on Him that sent me," He certainly did not
mean Himself to be separated from the Father, that is, from Him that
sent Him; but that men might so believe on Himself, as they believe on
the Father, to whom He is equal. And this He says in express terms in
another place, "Ye believe in God, believe also in me:" [169] that is,
in the same way as you believe in God, so also believe in me; because
I and the Father are One God. As therefore, here, He has as it were
withdrawn the faith of men from Himself, and transferred it to the
Father, by saying, "Believeth not on me, but on Him that sent me,"
from whom nevertheless He certainly did not separate Himself; so also,
when He says, "It is not mine to give, but [it shall be given to them]
for whom it is prepared by my Father," it is I think plain in what
relation both are to be taken. For that other also is of the same
kind, "I will not judge;" whereas He Himself shall judge the quick and
dead. [170] But because He will not do so by human power, therefore,
reverting to the Godhead, He raises the hearts of men upwards; which
to lift up, He Himself came down.

Chapter 13.--Diverse Things are Spoken Concerning the Same Christ, on
Account of the Diverse Natures of the One Hypostasis [Theanthropic
Person]. Why It is Said that the Father Will Not Judge, But Has Given
Judgment to the Son.

28. Yet unless the very same were the Son of man on account of the
form of a servant which He took, who is the Son of God on account of
the form of God in which He is; Paul the apostle would not say of the
princes of this world, "For had they known it, they would not have
crucified the Lord of glory." [171] For He was crucified after the
form of a servant, and yet "the Lord of glory" was crucified. For that
"taking" was such as to make God man, and man God. Yet what is said on
account of what, and what according to what, the thoughtful, diligent,
and pious reader discerns for himself, the Lord being his helper. For
instance, we have said that He glorifies His own, as being God, and
certainly then as being the Lord of glory; and yet the Lord of glory
was crucified, because even God is rightly said to have been
crucified, not after the power of the divinity, but after the weakness
of the flesh: [172] just as we say, that He judges as God, that is, by
divine power, not by human; and yet the man Himself will judge, just
as the Lord of glory was crucified: for so He expressly says, "When
the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with
Him, and before Him shall be gathered all nations;" [173] and the rest
that is foretold of the future judgment in that place even to the last
sentence. And the Jews, inasmuch as they will be punished in that
judgment for persisting in their wickedness, as it is elsewhere
written, "shall look upon Him whom they have pierced." [174] For
whereas both good and bad shall see the Judge of the quick and dead,
without doubt the bad will not be able to see Him, except after the
form in which He is the Son of man; but yet in the glory wherein He
will judge, not in the lowliness wherein He was judged. But the
ungodly without doubt will not see that form of God in which He is
equal to the Father. For they are not pure in heart; and "Blessed are
the pure in heart: for they shall see God." [175] And that sight is
face to face, [176] the very sight that is promised as the highest
reward to the just, and which will then take place when He "shall have
delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father;" and in this
"kingdom" He means the sight of His own form also to be understood,
the whole creature being made subject to God, including that wherein
the Son of God was made the Son of man. Because, according to this
creature, "The Son also Himself shall be subject unto Him, that put
all things under Him, that God may be all in all." [177] Otherwise if
the Son of God, judging in the form in which He is equal to the
Father, shall appear when He judges to the ungodly also; what becomes
of that which He promises, as some great thing, to him who loves Him,
saying, "And I will love him, and will manifest myself to him?" [178]
Wherefore He will judge as the Son of man, yet not by human power, but
by that whereby He is the Son of God; and on the other hand, He will
judge as the Son of God, yet not appearing in that [unincarnate] form
in which He is God equal to the Father, but in that [incarnate form]
in which He is the Son of man. [179]

29. Therefore both ways of speaking may be used; the Son of man will
judge, and, the Son of man will not judge: since the Son of man will
judge, that the text may be true which says, "When the Son of man
shall come, then before Him shall be gathered all nations;" and the
Son of man will not judge, that the text may be true which says, "I
will not judge him;" [180] and, "I seek not mine own glory: there is
One that seeketh and judgeth." [181] For in respect to this, that in
the judgment, not the form of God, but the form of the Son of man will
appear, the Father Himself will not judge; for according to this it is
said, "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment
unto the Son." Whether this is said after that mode of speech which we
have mentioned above, where it is said, "So hath He given to the Son
to have life in Himself," [182] that it should signify that so He
begat the Son; or, whether after that of which the apostle speaks,
saying, "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a
name which is above every name:"--(For this is said of the Son of man,
in respect to whom the Son of God was raised from the dead; since He,
being in the form of God equal to the Father, wherefrom He "emptied"
Himself by taking the form of a servant, both acts and suffers, and
receives, in that same form of a servant, what the apostle goes on to
mention: "He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross; wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and
given Him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and
things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, in the Glory of God the Father:" [183] --whether
then the words, "He hath committed all judgment unto the Son," are
said according to this or that mode of speech; it sufficiently appears
from this place, that if they were said according to that sense in
which it is said, "He hath given to the Son to have life in Himself,"
it certainly would not be said, "The Father judgeth no man." For in
respect to this, that the Father hath begotten the Son equal to
Himself, He judges with Him. Therefore it is in respect to this that
it is said, that in the judgment, not the form of God, but the form of
the Son of man will appear. Not that He will not judge, who hath
committed all judgment unto the Son, since the Son saith of Him,
"There is One that seeketh and judgeth:" but it is so said, "The
Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son;"
as if it were said, No one will see the Father in the judgment of the
quick and the dead, but all will see the Son: because He is also the
Son of man, so that He can be seen even by the ungodly, since they too
shall see Him whom they have pierced.

30. Lest, however, we may seem to conjecture this rather than to prove
it clearly, let us produce a certain and plain sentence of the Lord
Himself, by which we may show that this was the cause why He said,
"The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the
Son," viz. because He will appear as Judge in the form of the Son of
man, which is not the form of the Father, but of the Son; nor yet that
form of the Son in which He is equal to the Father, but that in which
He is less than the Father; in order that, in the judgment, He may be
visible both to the good and to the bad. For a little while after He
says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and
believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not
come into condemnation; but shall pass [184] from death unto life."
Now this life eternal is that sight which does not belong to the bad.
Then follows, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and
now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they
that hear shall live." [185] And this is proper to the godly, who so
hear of His incarnation, as to believe that He is the Son of God, that
is, who so receive Him, as made for their sakes less than the Father,
in the form of a servant, that they believe Him equal to the Father,
in the form of God. And thereupon He continues, enforcing this very
point, "For as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to
the Son to have life in Himself." And then He comes to the sight of
His own glory, in which He shall come to judgment; which sight will be
common to the ungodly and to the just. For He goes on to say, "And
hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the
Son of man." [186] I think nothing can be more clear. For inasmuch as
the Son of God is equal to the Father, He does not receive this power
of executing judgment, but He has it with the Father in secret; but He
receives it, so that the good and the bad may see Him judging,
inasmuch as He is the Son of man. Since the sight of the Son of man
will be shown to the bad also: for the sight of the form of God will
not be shown except to the pure in heart, for they shall see God; that
is, to the godly only, to whose love He promises this very thing, that
He will show Himself to them. And see, accordingly, what follows:
"Marvel not at this," He says. Why does He forbid us to marvel, unless
it be that, in truth, every one marvels who does not understand, that
therefore He said the Father gave Him power also to execute judgment,
because He is the Son of man; whereas, it might rather have been
anticipated that He would say, since He is the Son of God? But because
the wicked are not able to see the Son of God as He is in the form of
God equal to the Father, but yet it is necessary that both the just
and the wicked should see the Judge of the quick and dead, when they
will be judged in His presence; "Marvel not at this," He says, "for
the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear
His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the
resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the
resurrection of damnation." [187] For this purpose, then, it was
necessary that He should therefore receive that power, because He is
the Son of man, in order that all in rising again might see Him in the
form in which He can be seen by all, but by some to damnation, by
others to life eternal. And what is life eternal, unless that sight
which is not granted to the ungodly? "That they might know Thee," He
says, "the One true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." [188]
And how are they to know Jesus Christ Himself also, unless as the One
true God, who will show Himself to them; not as He will show Himself,
in the form of the Son of man, to those also that shall be punished?
[189]

31. He is "good," according to that sight, according to which God
appears to the pure in heart; for "truly God is good unto Israel even
to such as are of a clean heart." [190] But when the wicked shall see
the Judge, He will not seem good to them; because they will not
rejoice in their heart to see Him, but all "kindreds of the earth
shall then wail because of Him," [191] namely, as being reckoned in
the number of all the wicked and unbelievers. On this account also He
replied to him, who had called Him Good Master, when seeking advice of
Him how he might attain eternal life, "Why askest thou me about good?
[192] there is none good but One, that is, God." [193] And yet the
Lord Himself, in another place, calls man good: "A good man," He says,
"out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth good things:
and an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth
evil things." [194] But because that man was seeking eternal life, and
eternal life consists in that contemplation in which God is seen, not
for punishment, but for everlasting joy; and because he did not
understand with whom he was speaking, and thought Him to be only the
Son of man: [195] Why, He says, askest thou me about good? that is,
with respect to that form which thou seest, why askest thou about
good, and callest me, according to what thou seest, Good Master? This
is the form of the Son of man, the form which has been taken, the form
that will appear in judgment, not only to the righteous, but also to
the ungodly; and the sight of this form will not be for good to those
who are wicked. But there is a sight of that form of mine, in which
when I was, I thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but in
order to take this form I emptied myself. [196] That one God,
therefore, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, who will not
appear, except for joy which cannot be taken away from the just; for
which future joy he sighs, who says, "One thing have I desired of the
Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the
Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord:" [197]
that one God, therefore, Himself, I say, is alone good, for this
reason, that no one sees Him for sorrow and wailing, but only for
salvation and true joy. If you understand me after this latter form,
then I am good; but if according to that former only, then why askest
thou me about good? If thou art among those who "shall look upon Him
whom they have pierced," [198] that very sight itself will be evil to
them, because it will be penal. That after this meaning, then, the
Lord said, "Why askest thou me about good? there is none good but One,
that is, God," is probable upon those proofs which I have alleged,
because that sight of God, whereby we shall contemplate the substance
of God unchangeable and invisible to human eyes (which is promised to
the saints alone; which the Apostle Paul speaks of, as "face to face;"
[199] and of which the Apostle John says, "We shall be like Him, for
we shall see Him as He is;" [200] and of which it is said, "One thing
have I desired of the Lord, that I may behold the beauty of the Lord,"
and of which the Lord Himself says, "I will both love him, and will
manifest myself to him;" [201] and on account of which alone we
cleanse our hearts by faith, that we may be those "pure in heart who
are blessed for they shall see God:" [202] and whatever else is spoken
of that sight: which whosoever turns the eye of love to seek it, may
find most copiously scattered through all the Scriptures),--that sight
alone, I say, is our chief good, for the attaining of which we are
directed to do whatever we do aright. But that sight of the Son of man
which is foretold, when all nations shall be gathered before Him, and
shall say to Him, "Lord, when saw we Thee an hungered, or thirsty,
etc.?" will neither be a good to the ungodly, who shall be sent into
everlasting fire, nor the chief good to the righteous. For He still
goes on to call these to the kingdom which has been prepared for them
from the foundation of the world. For, as He will say to those,
"Depart into everlasting fire;" so to these, "Come, ye blessed of my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you." And as those will go
into everlasting burning; so the righteous will go into life eternal.
But what is life eternal, except "that they may know Thee," He says,
"the One true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent?" [203] but
know Him now in that glory of which He says to the Father, "Which I
had with Thee before the world was." [204] For then He will deliver up
the kingdom to God, even the Father, [205] that the good servant may
enter into the joy of his Lord, [206] and that He may hide those whom
God keeps in the hiding of His countenance from the confusion of men,
namely, of those men who shall then be confounded by hearing this
sentence; of which evil hearing "the righteous man shall not be
afraid" [207] if only he be kept in "the tabernacle," that is, in the
true faith of the Catholic Church, from "the strife of tongues," [208]
that is, from the sophistries of heretics. But if there is any other
explanation of the words of the Lord, where He says, "Why asketh thou
me about good? there is none good, but One, that is, God;" provided
only that the substance of the Father be not therefore believed to be
of greater goodness than that of the Son, according to which He is the
Word by whom all things were made; and if there is nothing in it
abhorrent from sound doctrine; let us securely use it, and not one
explanation only, but as many as we are able to find. For so much the
more powerfully are the heretics proved wrong, the more outlets are
open for avoiding their snares. But let us now start afresh, and
address ourselves to the consideration of that which still remains.

Footnotes

[171] 1 Cor. ii. 8
[172] 2 Cor. xiii. 4
[173] Matt. xxv. 31, 32
[174] Zech. xii. 10
[175] Matt. v. 8
[176] 1 Cor. xiii. 12
[177] 1 Cor. xv. 24-28
[178] John xiv. 21
[179] [Augustin in this discussion, sometimes employs the phrase "Son
of man" to denote the human nature of Christ, in distinction from the
divine. But in Scripture and in trinitarian theology generally, this
phrase properly denotes the whole theanthropic person under a human
title--just as "man", (1 Tim. ii. 5), "last Adam" (1 Cor. xv. 45), and
"second man" (1 Cor. xv. 47), denote not the human nature, but the
whole divine-human person under a human title. Strictly used, the
phrase "Son of man" does not designate the difference between the
divine and human natures in the theanthropos, but between the person
of the un-incarnate and that of the incarnate Logos. Augustin's
meaning is, that the Son of God will judge men at the last day, not in
his original "form of God," but as this is united with human
nature--as the Son of man.--W.G.T.S.]
[180] John xii. 47
[181] John viii. 50
[182] John v. 22, 26
[183] Phil. ii. 8-11
[184] Transiit in Vulg.; and so in the Greek.
[185] John v. 24, 25
[186] John v. 25, 26
[187] John v. 22-29
[188] John xvii. 3
[189] [Augustin here seems to teach that the phenomenal appearance of
Christ to the redeemed in heaven will be different from that to all
men in the day of judgment. He says that he will show himself to the
former "in the form of God;" to the latter, "in the form of the Son of
man." But, surely, it is one and the same God-man who sits on the
judgment throne, and the heavenly throne. His appearance must be the
same in both instances: namely, that of God incarnate. The effect of
his phenomenal appearance upon the believer will, indeed, be very
different from that upon the unbeliever. For the wicked, this vision
of God incarnate will be one of terror; for the redeemed one of
joy.--W.G.T.S.]
[190] Ps. lxxiii. 1
[191] Apoc. i. 7
[192] [Augustin's reading of this text is that of the uncials; and in
that form which omits the article with agathou.--W.G.T.S.]
[193] Matt. xix. 17
[194] Matt. xii. 35
[195] [That is, a mere man. Augustin here, as in some other places,
employs the phrase "Son of man" to denote the human nature by
itself--not the divine and human natures united in one person, and
designated by this human title. The latter is the Scripture usage. As
"Immanuel" does not properly denote the divine nature, but the union
of divinity and humanity, so "Son of man" does not properly denote the
human nature, but the union of divinity and humanity.--W.G.T.S.]
[196] Phil. ii. 6, 7
[197] Ps. xxvii. 4
[198] Zech. xii. 10
[199] 1 Cor. xiii. 12
[200] 1 John iii. 2
[201] John xiv. 21
[202] Matt. v. 8
[203] Matt. xxv. 37, 41, 34
[204] John xvii. 3-5
[205] 1 Cor. xv. 24
[206] Matt. xxv. 21, 23
[207] Ps. cxii. 7
[208] Ps. xxxi. 21
.

Book II.

Augustin pursues his defense of the equality of the Trinity; and in
treating of the sending of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and of the
various appearances of God, demonstrates that He who is sent is not
therefore less than He who sends, because the one has sent, the other
has been sent; but that the Trinity, being in all things equal, and
alike in its own nature unchangeable and invisible and omnipresent,
works indivisibly in each sending or appearance.

Preface.

When men seek to know God, and bend their minds according to the
capacity of human weakness to the understanding of the Trinity;
learning, as they must, by experience, the wearisome difficulties of
the task, whether from the sight itself of the mind striving to gaze
upon light unapproachable, or, indeed, from the manifold and various
modes of speech employed in the sacred writings (wherein, as it seems
to me, the mind is nothing else but roughly exercised, in order that
it may find sweetness when glorified by the grace of Christ);--such
men, I say, when they have dispelled every ambiguity, and arrived at
something certain, ought of all others most easily to make allowance
for those who err in the investigation of so deep a secret. But there
are two things most hard to bear with, in the case of those who are in
error: hasty assumption before the truth is made plain; and, when it
has been made plain, defence of the falsehood thus hastily assumed.
From which two faults, inimical as they are to the finding out of the
truth, and to the handling of the divine and sacred books, should God,
as I pray and hope, defend and protect me with the shield of His good
will, [209] and with the grace of His mercy, I will not be slow to
search out the substance of God, whether through His Scripture or
through the creature. For both of these are set forth for our
contemplation to this end, that He may Himself be sought, and Himself
be loved, who inspired the one, and created the other. Nor shall I be
afraid of giving my opinion, in which I shall more desire to be
examined by the upright, than fear to be carped at by the perverse.
For charity, most excellent and unassuming, gratefully accepts the
dovelike eye; but for the dog's tooth nothing remains, save either to
shun it by the most cautious humility, or to blunt it by the most
solid truth; and far rather would I be censured by any one whatsoever,
than be praised by either the erring or the flatterer. For the lover
of truth need fear no one's censure. For he that censures, must needs
be either enemy or friend. And if an enemy reviles, he must be borne
with: but a friend, if he errs, must be taught; if he teaches,
listened to. But if one who errs praises you, he confirms your error;
if one who flatters, he seduces you into error. "Let the righteous,"
therefore, "smite me, it shall be a kindness; and let him reprove me;
but the oil of the sinner shall not anoint my head." [210]

Footnotes

[209] Ps. v. 12
[210] Ps. cxli. 5

Chapter 1.--There is a Double Rule for Understanding the Scriptural
Modes of Speech Concerning the Son of God. These Modes of Speech are
of a Threefold Kind.

2. Wherefore, although we hold most firmly, concerning our Lord Jesus
Christ, what may be called the canonical rule, as it is both
disseminated through the Scriptures, and has been demonstrated by
learned and Catholic handlers of the same Scriptures, namely, that the
Son of God is both understood to be equal to the Father according to
the form of God in which He is, and less than the Father according to
the form of a servant which He took; [211] in which form He was found
to be not only less than the Father, but also less than the Holy
Spirit; and not only so, but less even than Himself,--not than Himself
who was, but than Himself who is; because, by taking the form of a
servant, He did not lose the form of God, as the testimonies of the
Scriptures taught us, to which we have referred in the former book:
yet there are some things in the sacred text so put as to leave it
ambiguous to which rule they are rather to be referred; whether to
that by which we understand the Son as less, in that He has taken upon
Him the creature, or to that by which we understand that the Son is
not indeed less than, but equal to the Father, but yet that He is from
Him, God of God, Light of light. For we call the Son God of God; but
the Father, God only; not of God. Whence it is plain that the Son has
another of whom He is, and to whom He is Son; but that the Father has
not a Son of whom He is, but only to whom He is father. For every son
is what he is, of his father, and is son to his father; but no father
is what he is, of his son, but is father to his son. [212]

3. Some things, then, are so put in the Scriptures concerning the
Father and the Son, as to intimate the unity and equality of their
substance; as, for instance, "I and the Father are one;" [213] and,
"Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal
with God;" [214] and whatever other texts there are of the kind. And
some, again, are so put that they show the Son as less on account of
the form of a servant, that is, of His having taken upon Him the
creature of a changeable and human substance; as, for instance, that
which says, "For my Father is greater than I;" [215] and, "The Father
judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." For a
little after he goes on to say, "And hath given Him authority to
execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man." And further,
some are so put, as to show Him at that time neither as less nor as
equal, but only to intimate that He is of the Father; as, for
instance, that which says, "For as the Father hath life in Himself, so
hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself;" and that other:
"The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do."
[216] For if we shall take this to be therefore so said, because the
Son is less in the form taken from the creature, it will follow that
the Father must have walked on the water, or opened the eyes with clay
and spittle of some other one born blind, and have done the other
things which the Son appearing in the flesh did among men, before the
Son did them; [217] in order that He might be able to do those things,
who said that the Son was not able to do anything of Himself, except
what He hath seen the Father do. Yet who, even though he were mad,
would think this? It remains, therefore, that these texts are so
expressed, because the life of the Son is unchangeable as that of the
Father is, and yet He is of the Father; and the working of the Father
and of the Son is indivisible, and yet so to work is given to the Son
from Him of whom He Himself is, that is, from the Father; and the Son
so sees the Father, as that He is the Son in the very seeing Him. For
to be of the Father, that is, to be born of the Father, is to Him
nothing else than to see the Father; and to see Him working, is
nothing else than to work with Him: but therefore not from Himself,
because He is not from Himself. And, therefore, those things which "He
sees the Father do, these also doeth the Son likewise," because He is
of the Father. For He neither does other things in like manner, as a
painter paints other pictures, in the same way as he sees others to
have been painted by another man; nor the same things in a different
manner, as the body expresses the same letters, which the mind has
thought; but "whatsoever things," saith He, "the Father doeth, these
same things also doeth the Son likewise." [218] He has said both
"these same things," and "likewise;" and hence the working of both the
Father and the Son is indivisible and equal, but it is from the Father
to the Son. Therefore the Son cannot do anything of Himself, except
what He seeth the Father do. From this rule, then, whereby the
Scriptures so speak as to mean, not to set forth one as less than
another, but only to show which is of which, some have drawn this
meaning, as if the Son were said to be less. And some among ourselves
who are more unlearned and least instructed in these things,
endeavoring to take these texts according to the form of a servant,
and so misinterpreting them, are troubled. And to prevent this, the
rule in question is to be observed whereby the Son is not less, but it
is simply intimated that He is of the Father, in which words not His
inequality but His birth is declared.

Footnotes

[211] Phil. ii. 6, 7
[212] [Augustin here brings to view both the trinitarian and the
theanthropic or mediatorial subordination. The former is the status of
Sonship. God the Son is God of God. Sonship as a relation is
subordinate to paternity. But a son must be of the same grade of
being, and of the same nature with his father. A human son and a human
father are alike and equally human. And a Divine Son and a Divine
father are alike and equally divine. The theanthropic or mediatorial
subordination is the status of humiliation, by reason of the
incarnation. In the words of Augustin, it is "that by which we
understand the Son as less, in that he has taken upon Him the
creature." The subordination in this case is that of voluntary
condescension, for the purpose of redeeming sinful man.--W.G.T.S.]
[213] John x. 30
[214] Phil. ii. 6
[215] John xiv. 28
[216] John v. 22, 27, 26, 19
[217] Matt. xiv. 26, and John ix. 6, 7
[218] John v. 19

Chapter 2.--That Some Ways of Speaking Concerning the Son are to Be
Understood According to Either Rule.

4. There are, then, some things in the sacred books, as I began by
saying, so put, that it is doubtful to which they are to be referred:
whether to that rule whereby the Son is less on account of His having
taken the creature; or whether to that whereby it is intimated that
although equal, yet He is of the Father. And in my opinion, if this is
in such way doubtful, that which it really is can neither be explained
nor discerned, then such passages may without danger be understood
according to either rule, as that, for instance, "My doctrine is not
mine, but His that sent me." [219] For this may both be taken
according to the form of a servant, as we have already treated it in
the former book; [220] or according to the form of God, in which He is
in such way equal to the Father, that He is yet of the Father. For
according to the form of God, as the Son is not one and His life
another, but the life itself is the Son; so the Son is not one and His
doctrine another, but the doctrine itself is the Son. And hence, as
the text, "He hath given life to the Son," is no otherwise to be
understood than, He hath begotten the Son, who is life; so also when
it is said, He hath given doctrine to the Son, it may be rightly
understood to mean, He hath begotten the Son, who is doctrine so that,
when it is said, "My doctrine is not mine, but His who sent me," it is
so to be understood as if it were, I am not from myself, but from Him
who sent me.

Footnotes

[219] John vii. 16
[220] See above, Book I. c. 12.

Chapter 3.--Some Things Concerning the Holy Spirit are to Be
Understood According to the One Rule Only.

5. For even of the Holy Spirit, of whom it is not said, "He emptied
Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant;" yet the Lord
Himself says, "Howbeit, when He the Spirit of Truth is come, He will
guide you into all truth. For He shall not speak of Himself, but
whatsoever He shall hear that shall He speak; and He will show you
things to come. He shall glorify me; for He shall receive of mine, and
shall show it unto you." And except He had immediately gone on to say
after this, "All things that the Father hath are mine; therefore said
I, that He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you;" [221] it
might, perhaps, have been believed that the Holy Spirit was so born of
Christ, as Christ is of the Father. Since He had said of Himself, "My
doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me;" but of the Holy Spirit,
"For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that
shall He speak;" and, "For He shall receive of mine, and shall show it
unto you." But because He has rendered the reason why He said, "He
shall receive of mine" (for He says, "All things that the Father hath
are mine; therefore said I, that He shall take of mine"); it remains
that the Holy Spirit be understood to have of that which is the
Father's, as the Son also hath. And how can this be, unless according
to that which we have said above, "But when the Comforter is come,
whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth
which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me"? [222] He is
said, therefore, not to speak of Himself, in that He proceedeth from
the Father; and as it does not follow that the Son is less because He
said, "The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father
do" (for He has not said this according to the form of a servant, but
according to the form of God, as we have already shown, and these
words do not set Him forth as less than, but as of the Father), so it
is not brought to pass that the Holy Spirit is less, because it is
said of Him, "For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He
shall hear, that shall He speak;" for the words belong to Him as
proceeding from the Father. But whereas both the Son is of the Father,
and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, why both are not called
sons, and both not said to be begotten, but the former is called the
one only-begotten Son, and the latter, viz. the Holy Spirit, neither
son nor begotten, because if begotten, then certainly a son, we will
discuss in another place, if God shall grant, and so far as He shall
grant. [223]

Footnotes

[221] John xvi. 13-15
[222] John xv. 26
[223] Below, Bk. XV. c. 25.

Chapter 4.--The Glorification of the Son by the Father Does Not Prove
Inequality.

6. But here also let them wake up if they can, who have thought this,
too, to be a testimony on their side, to show that the Father is
greater than the Son, because the Son hath said, "Father, glorify me."
Why, the Holy Spirit also glorifies Him. Pray, is the Spirit, too,
greater than He? Moreover, if on that account the Holy Spirit
glorifies the Son, because He shall receive of that which is the
Son's, and shall therefore receive of that which is the Son's because
all things that the Father has are the Son's also; it is evident that
when the Holy Spirit glorifies the Son, the Father glorifies the Son.
Whence it may be perceived that all things that the Father hath are
not only of the Son, but also of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy
Spirit is able to glorify the Son, whom the Father glorifies. But if
he who glorifies is greater than he whom he glorifies, let them allow
that those are equal who mutually glorify each other. But it is
written, also, that the Son glorifies the Father; for He says, "I have
glorified Thee on the earth." [224] Truly let them beware lest the
Holy Spirit be thought greater than both, because He glorifies the Son
whom the Father glorifies, while it is not written that He Himself is
glorified either by the Father or by the Son.

Footnotes

[224] John xvii. 1, 4

Chapter 5.--The Son and Holy Spirit are Not Therefore Less Because
Sent. The Son is Sent Also by Himself. Of the Sending of the Holy
Spirit.

7. But being proved wrong so far, men betake themselves to saying,
that he who sends is greater than he who is sent: therefore the Father
is greater than the Son, because the Son continually speaks of Himself
as being sent by the Father; and the Father is also greater than the
Holy Spirit, because Jesus has said of the Spirit, "Whom the Father
will send in my name;" [225] and the Holy Spirit is less than both,
because both the Father sends Him, as we have said, and the Son, when
He says, "But if I depart, I will send Him unto you." I first ask,
then, in this inquiry, whence and whither the Son was sent. "I," He
says, "came forth from the Father, and am come into the world." [226]
Therefore, to be sent, is to come forth forth from the Father, and to
come into the world. What, then, is that which the same evangelist
says concerning Him, "He was in the world, and the world was made by
Him, and the world knew Him not;" and then he adds, "He came unto His
own?" [227] Certainly He was sent thither, whither He came; but if He
was sent into the world, because He came forth from the Father, then
He both came into the world and was in the world. He was sent
therefore thither, where He already was. For consider that, too, which
is written in the prophet, that God said, "Do not I fill heaven and
earth?" [228] If this is said of the Son (for some will have it
understood that the Son Himself spoke either by the prophets or in the
prophets), whither was He sent except to the place where He already
was? For He who says, "I fill heaven and earth," was everywhere. But
if it is said of the Father, where could He be without His own word
and without His own wisdom, which "reacheth from one end to another
mightily, and sweetly ordereth all things?" [229] But He cannot be
anywhere without His own Spirit. Therefore, if God is everywhere, His
Spirit also is everywhere. Therefore, the Holy Spirit, too, was sent
thither, where He already was. For he, too, who finds no place to
which he might go from the presence of God, and who says, "If I ascend
up into heaven, Thou art there; if I shall go down into hell, behold,
Thou art there;" wishing it to be understood that God is present
everywhere, named in the previous verse His Spirit; for He says,"
Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy
presence?" [230]

8. For this reason, then, if both the Son and the Holy Spirit are sent
thither where they were, we must inquire, how that sending, whether of
the Son or of the Holy Spirit, is to be understood; for of the Father
alone, we nowhere read that He is sent. Now, of the Son, the apostle
writes thus: "But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent
forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them
that were under the law." [231] "He sent," he says, "His Son, made of
a woman." And by this term, woman, [232] what Catholic does not know
that he did not wish to signify the privation of virginity; but,
according to a Hebraism, the difference of sex? When, therefore, he
says, "God sent His Son, made of a woman," he sufficiently shows that
the Son was "sent" in this very way, in that He was "made of a woman."
Therefore, in that He was born of God, He was in the world; but in
that He was born of Mary, He was sent and came into the world.
Moreover, He could not be sent by the Father without the Holy Spirit,
not only because the Father, when He sent Him, that is, when He made
Him of a woman, is certainly understood not to have so made Him
without His own Spirit; but also because it is most plainly and
expressly said in the Gospel in answer to the Virgin Mary, when she
asked of the angel, "How shall this be?" "The Holy Ghost shall come
upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee." [233]
And Matthew says, "She was found with child of the Holy Ghost." [234]
Although, too, in the prophet Isaiah, Christ Himself is understood to
say of His own future advent, "And now the Lord God and His Spirit
hath sent me." [235]

9. Perhaps some one may wish to drive us to say, that the Son is sent
also by Himself, because the conception and childbirth of Mary is the
working of the Trinity, by whose act of creating all things are
created. And how, he will go on to say, has the Father sent Him, if He
sent Himself? To whom I answer first, by asking him to tell me, if he
can, in what manner the Father hath sanctified Him, if He hath
sanctified Himself? For the same Lord says both; "Say ye of Him," He
says, "whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, Thou
blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God;" [236] while in
another place He says, "And for their sake I sanctify myself." [237] I
ask, also, in what manner the Father delivered Him, if He delivered
Himself? For the Apostle Paul says both: "Who," he says, "spared not
His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all;" [238] while elsewhere
he says of the Saviour Himself, "Who loved me, and delivered Himself
for me." [239] He will reply, I suppose, if he has a right sense in
these things, Because the will of the Father and the Son is one, and
their working indivisible. In like manner, then, let him understand
the incarnation and nativity of the Virgin, wherein the Son is
understood as sent, to have been wrought by one and the same operation
of the Father and of the Son indivisibly; the Holy Spirit certainly
not being thence excluded, of whom it is expressly said, "She was
found with child by the Holy Ghost." For perhaps our meaning will be
more plainly unfolded, if we ask in what manner God sent His Son. He
commanded that He should come, and He, complying with the commandment,
came. Did He then request, or did He only suggest? But whichever of
these it was, certainly it was done by a word, and the Word of God is
the Son of God Himself. Wherefore, since the Father sent Him by a
word, His being sent was the work of both the Father and His Word;
therefore the same Son was sent by the Father and the Son, because the
Son Himself is the Word of the Father. For who would embrace so
impious an opinion as to think the Father to have uttered a word in
time, in order that the eternal Son might thereby be sent and might
appear in the flesh in the fullness of time? But assuredly it was in
that Word of God itself which was in the beginning with God and was
God, namely, in the wisdom itself of God, apart from time, at what
time that wisdom must needs appear in the flesh. Therefore, since
without any commencement of time, the Word was in the beginning, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God, it was in the Word itself
without any time, at what time the Word was to be made flesh and dwell
among us. [240] And when this fullness of time had come, "God sent His
Son, made of a woman," [241] that is, made in time, that the Incarnate
Word might appear to men; while it was in that Word Himself, apart
from time, at what time this was to be done; for the order of times is
in the eternal wisdom of God without time. Since, then, that the Son
should appear in the flesh was wrought by both the Father and the Son,
it is fitly said that He who appeared in that flesh was sent, and that
He who did not appear in it, sent Him; because those things which are
transacted outwardly before the bodily eyes have their existence from
the inward structure (apparatu) of the spiritual nature, and on that
account are fitly said to be sent. Further, that form of man which He
took is the person of the Son, not also of the Father; on which
account the invisible Father, together with the Son, who with the
Father is invisible, is said to have sent the same Son by making Him
visible. But if He became visible in such way as to cease to be
invisible with the Father, that is, if the substance of the invisible
Word were turned by a change and transition into a visible creature,
then the Son would be so understood to be sent by the Father, that He
would be found to be only sent; not also, with the Father, sending.
But since He so took the form of a servant, as that the unchangeable
form of God remained, it is clear that that which became apparent in
the Son was done by the Father and the Son not being apparent; that
is, that by the invisible Father, with the invisible Son, the same Son
Himself was sent so as to be visible. Why, therefore, does He say,
"Neither came I of myself?" This, we may now say, is said according to
the form of a servant, in the same way as it is said, "I judge no
man." [242]

10. If, therefore, He is said to be sent, in so far as He appeared
outwardly in the bodily creature, who inwardly in His spiritual nature
is always hidden from the eyes of mortals, it is now easy to
understand also of the Holy Spirit why He too is said to be sent. For
in due time a certain outward appearance of the creature was wrought,
wherein the Holy Spirit might be visibly shown; whether when He
descended upon the Lord Himself in a bodily shape as a dove, [243] or
when, ten days having past since His ascension, on the day of
Pentecost a sound came suddenly from heaven as of a rushing mighty
wind, and cloven tongues like as of fire were seen upon them, and it
sat upon each of them. [244] This operation, visibly exhibited, and
presented to mortal eyes, is called the sending of the Holy Spirit;
not that His very substance appeared, in which He himself also is
invisible and unchangeable, like the Father and the Son, but that the
hearts of men, touched by things seen outwardly, might be turned from
the manifestation in time of Him as coming to His hidden eternity as
ever present.

Chapter 6.--The Creature is Not So Taken by the Holy Spirit as Flesh
is by the Word.

11. It is, then, for this reason nowhere written, that the Father is
greater than the Holy Spirit, or that the Holy Spirit is less than God
the Father, because the creature in which the Holy Spirit was to
appear was not taken in the same way as the Son of man was taken, as
the form in which the person of the Word of God Himself should be set
forth not that He might possess the word of God, as other holy and
wise men have possessed it, but "above His fellows;" [245] not
certainly that He possessed the word more than they, so as to be of
more surpassing wisdom than the rest were, but that He was the very
Word Himself. For the word in the flesh is one thing, and the Word
made flesh is another; i.e. the word in man is one thing, the Word
that is man is another. For flesh is put for man, where it is said,
"The Word was made flesh;" [246] and again, "And all flesh shall see
the salvation of God." [247] For it does not mean flesh without soul
and without mind; but "all flesh," is the same as if it were said,
every man. The creature, then, in which the Holy Spirit should appear,
was not so taken, as that flesh and human form were taken, of the
Virgin Mary. For the Spirit did not beatify the dove, or the wind, or
the fire, and join them for ever to Himself and to His person in unity
and "fashion." [248] Nor, again, is the nature of the Holy Spirit
mutable and changeable; so that these things were not made of the
creature, but He himself was turned and changed first into one and
then into another, as water is changed into ice. But these things
appeared at the seasons at which they ought to have appeared, the
creature serving the Creator, and being changed and converted at the
command of Him who remains immutably in Himself, in order to signify
and manifest Him in such way as it was fit He should be signified and
manifested to mortal men. Accordingly, although that dove is called
the Spirit; [249] and in speaking of that fire, "There appeared unto
them," he says, "cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each
of them; and they began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit
gave them utterance; [250] in order to show that the Spirit was
manifested by that fire, as by the dove; yet we cannot call the Holy
Spirit both God and a dove, or both God and fire, in the same way as
we call the Son both God and man; nor as we call the Son the Lamb of
God; which not only John the Baptist says, "Behold the Lamb of God,"
[251] but also John the Evangelist sees the Lamb slain in the
Apocalypse. [252] For that prophetic vision was not shown to bodily
eyes through bodily forms, but in the spirit through spiritual images
of bodily things. But whosoever saw that dove and that fire, saw them
with their eyes. Although it may perhaps be disputed concerning the
fire, whether it was seen by the eyes or in the spirit, on account of
the form of the sentence. For the text does not say, They saw cloven
tongues like fire, but, "There appeared to them." But we are not wont
to say with the same meaning, It appeared to me; as we say, I saw. And
in those spiritual visions of corporeal images the usual expressions
are, both, It appeared to me; and, I saw: but in those things which
are shown to the eyes through express corporeal forms, the common
expression is not, It appeared to me; but, I saw. There may,
therefore, be a question raised respecting that fire, how it was seen;
whether within in the spirit as it were outwardly, or really outwardly
before the eyes of the flesh. But of that dove, which is said to have
descended in a bodily form, no one ever doubted that it was seen by
the eyes. Nor, again, as we call the Son a Rock (for it is written,
"And that Rock was Christ" [253] ), can we so call the Spirit a dove
or fire. For that rock was a thing already created, and after the mode
of its action was called by the name of Christ, whom it signified;
like the stone placed under Jacob's head, and also anointed, which he
took in order to signify the Lord; [254] or as Isaac was Christ, when
he carried the wood for the sacrifice of himself. [255] A particular
significative action was added to those already existing things; they
did not, as that dove and fire, suddenly come into being in order
simply so to signify. The dove and the fire, indeed, seem to me more
like that flame which appeared to Moses in the bush, [256] or that
pillar which the people followed in the wilderness, [257] or the
thunders and lightnings which came when the Law was given in the
mount. [258] For the corporeal form of these things came into being
for the very purpose, that it might signify something, and then pass
away. [259]

Footnotes

[245] Heb. i. 9
[246] John i. 14
[247] Luke iii. 6
[248] [The reference is to schema, in Phil. ii. 8--the term chosen by
St. Paul to describe the "likeness of men," which the second
trinitarian person assumed. The variety in the terms by which St. Paul
describes the incarnation is very striking. The person incarnated
subsists first in a "form of God;" he then takes along with this
(still retaining this) a "form of a servant;" which form of a servant
is a "likeness of men;" which likeness of men is a "scheme" (A.V.
"fashion") or external form of a man.--W.G.T.S.]
[249] Matt. iii. 16
[250] Acts ii. 3, 4
[251] John i. 29
[252] Apoc. v. 6
[253] 1 Cor. x. 4
[254] Gen. xxviii. 18
[255] Gen. xxii. 6
[256] Ex. iii. 2
[257] Ex. xiii. 21, 22
[258] Ex. xix. 16
[259] [A theophany, though a harbinger of the incarnation, differs
from it, by not effecting a hypostatical or personal union between God
and the creature. When the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a dove,
he did not unite himself with it. The dove did not constitute an
integral part of the divine person who employed it. Nor did the
illuminated vapor in the theophany of the Shekinah. But when the Logos
appeared in the form of a man, he united himself with it, so that it
became a constituent part of his person. A theophany, as Augustin
notices, is temporary and transient. The incarnation is
perpetual.--W.G.T.S.]

Chapter 7.--A Doubt Raised About Divine Appearances.

12. The Holy Spirit, then, is also said to be sent, on account of
these corporeal forms which came into existence in time, in order to
signify and manifest Him, as He must needs be manifested, to human
senses; yet He is not said to be less than the Father, as the Son,
because He was in the form of a servant, is said to be; because that
form of a servant inhered in the unity of the person of the Son, but
those corporeal forms appeared for a time, in order to show what was
necessary to be shown, and then ceased to be. Why, then, is not the
Father also said to be sent, through those corporeal forms, the fire
of the bush, and the pillar of cloud or of fire, and the lightnings in
the mount, and whatever other things of the kind appeared at that
time, when (as we have learned from Scripture testimony) He spake face
to face with the fathers, if He Himself was manifested by those modes
and forms of the creature, as exhibited and presented corporeally to
human sight? But if the Son was manifested by them, why is He said to
be sent so long after, when He was made of a woman, as the apostle
says, "But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son,
made of a woman," [260] seeing that He was sent also before, when He
appeared to the fathers by those changeable forms of the creature? Or
if He cannot rightly be said to be sent, unless when the Word was made
flesh, why is the Holy Spirit said to be sent, of whom no such
incarnation was ever wrought? But if by those visible things, which
are put before us in the Law and in the prophets, neither the Father
nor the Son but the Holy Spirit was manifested, why also is He said to
be sent now, when He was sent also before after these modes?

13. In the perplexity of this inquiry, the Lord helping us, we must
ask, first, whether the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit; or
whether, sometimes the Father, sometimes the Son, sometimes the Holy
Spirit; or whether it was without any distinction of persons, in such
way as the one and only God is spoken of, that is, that the Trinity
itself appeared to the Fathers by those forms of the creature. Next,
whichever of these alternatives shall have been found or thought true,
whether for this purpose only the creature was fashioned, wherein God,
as He judged it suitable at that time, should be shown to human sight;
or whether angels, who already existed, were so sent, as to speak in
the person of God, taking a corporeal form from the corporeal
creature, for the purpose of their ministry, as each had need; or
else, according to the power the Creator has given them, changing and
converting their own body itself, to which they are not subject, but
govern it as subject to themselves, into whatever appearances they
would that were suited and apt to their several actions. Lastly, we
shall discern that which it was our purpose to ask, viz. whether the
Son and the Holy Spirit were also sent before; and, if they were so
sent, what difference there is between that sending, and the one which
we read of in the Gospel; or whether in truth neither of them were
sent, except when either the Son was made of the Virgin Mary, or the
Holy Spirit appeared in a visible form, whether in the dove or in
tongues of fire.

Footnotes

[260] Gal. iv. 4

Chapter 8.--The Entire Trinity Invisible.

14. Let us therefore say nothing of those who, with an over carnal
mind, have thought the nature of the Word of God, and the Wisdom,
which, "remaining in herself, maketh all things new," [261] whom we
call the only Son of God, not only to be changeable, but also to be
visible. For these, with more audacity than religion, bring a very
dull heart to the inquiry into divine things. For whereas the soul is
a spiritual substance, and whereas itself also was made, yet could not
be made by any other than by Him by whom all things were made, and
without whom nothing is made, [262] it, although changeable, is yet
not visible; and this they have believed to be the case with the Word
Himself and with the Wisdom of God itself, by which the soul was made;
whereas this Wisdom is not only invisible, as the soul also is, but
likewise unchangeable, which the soul is not. It is in truth the same
unchangeableness in it, which is referred to when it was said,
"Remaining in herself she maketh all things new." Yet these people,
endeavoring, as it were, to prop up their error in its fall by
testimonies of the divine Scriptures, adduce the words of the Apostle
Paul; and take that, which is said of the one only God, in whom the
Trinity itself is understood, to be said only of the Father, and
neither of the Son nor of the Holy Spirit: "Now unto the King eternal,
immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever
and ever;" [263] and that other passage, "The blessed and only
Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only hath
immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto;
whom no man hath seen, nor can see." [264] How these passages are to
be understood, I think we have already discoursed sufficiently. [265]

Chapter 9.--Against Those Who Believed the Father Only to Be Immortal
and Invisible. The Truth to Be Sought by Peaceful Study.

15. But they who will have these texts understood only of the Father,
and not of the Son or the Holy Spirit, declare the Son to be visible,
not by having taken flesh of the Virgin, but aforetime also in
Himself. For He Himself, they say, appeared to the eyes of the
Fathers. And if you say to them, In whatever manner, then, the Son is
visible in Himself, in that manner also He is mortal in Himself; so
that it plainly follows that you would have this saying also
understood only of the Father, viz., "Who only hath immortality;" for
if the Son is mortal from having taken upon Him our flesh, then allow
that it is on account of this flesh that He is also visible: they
reply, that it is not on account of this flesh that they say that the
Son is mortal; but that, just as He was also before visible, so He was
also before mortal. For if they say the Son is mortal from having
taken our flesh, then it is not the Father alone without the Son who
hath immortality; because His Word also has immortality, by which all
things were made. For He did not therefore lose His immortality,
because He took mortal flesh; seeing that it could not happen even to
the human soul, that it should die with the body, when the Lord
Himself says, "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to
kill the soul." [266] Or, forsooth, also the Holy Spirit took flesh:
concerning whom certainly they will, without doubt, be troubled to
say--if the Son is mortal on account of taking our flesh--in what
manner they understand that the Father only has immortality without
the Son and the Holy Spirit, since, indeed, the Holy Spirit did not
take our flesh; and if He has not immortality, then the Son is not
mortal on account of taking our flesh; but if the Holy Spirit has
immortality, then it is not said only of the Father, "Who only hath
immortality." And therefore they think they are able to prove that the
Son in Himself was mortal also before the incarnation, because
changeableness itself is not unfitly called mortality, according to
which the soul also is said to die; not because it is changed and
turned into body, or into some substance other than itself, but
because, whatever in its own selfsame substance is now after another
mode than it once was, is discovered to be mortal, in so far as it has
ceased to be what it was. Because then, say they, before the Son of
God was born of the Virgin Mary, He Himself appeared to our fathers,
not in one and the same form only, but in many forms; first in one
form, then in another; He is both visible in Himself, because His
substance was visible to mortal eyes, when He had not yet taken our
flesh, and mortal, inasmuch as He is changeable. And so also the Holy
Spirit, who appeared at one time as a dove, and another time as fire.
Whence, they say, the following texts do not belong to the Trinity,
but singularly and properly to the Father only: "Now unto the King
eternal, immortal, and invisible, the only wise God;" and, "Who only
hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach
unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see."

16. Passing by, then, these reasoners, who are unable to know the
substance even of the soul, which is invisible, and therefore are very
far indeed from knowing that the substance of the one and only God,
that is, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, remains ever not
only invisible, but also unchangeable, and that hence it possesses
true and real immortality; let us, who deny that God, whether the
Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit, ever appeared to bodily eyes,
unless through the corporeal creature made subject to His own power;
let us, I say--ready to be corrected, if we are reproved in a
fraternal and upright spirit, ready to be so, even if carped at by an
enemy, so that he speak the truth--in catholic peace and with peaceful
study inquire, whether God indiscriminately appeared to our fathers
before Christ came in the flesh, or whether it was any one person of
the Trinity, or whether severally, as it were by turns.

Footnotes

[266] Matt. x. 28

Chapter 10--Whether God the Trinity Indiscriminately Appeared to the
Fathers, or Any One Person of the Trinity. The Appearing of God to
Adam. Of the Same Appearance. The Vision to Abraham.

17. And first, in that which is written in Genesis, viz., that God
spake with man whom He had formed out of the dust; if we set apart the
figurative meaning, and treat it so as to place faith in the narrative
even in the letter, it should appear that God then spake with man in
the appearance of a man. This is not indeed expressly laid down in the
book, but the general tenor of its reading sounds in this sense,
especially in that which is written, that Adam heard the voice of the
Lord God, walking in the garden in the cool of the evening, and hid
himself among the trees of the garden; and when God said, "Adam, where
art thou?" [267] replied, "I heard Thy voice, and I was afraid because
I was naked, and I hid myself from Thy face." For I do not see how
such a walking and conversation of God can be understood literally,
except He appeared as a man. For it can neither be said that a voice
only of God was framed, when God is said to have walked, or that He
who was walking in a place was not visible; while Adam, too, says that
he hid himself from the face of God. Who then was He? Whether the
Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit? Whether altogether
indiscriminately did God the Trinity Himself speak to man in the form
of man? The context, indeed, itself of the Scripture nowhere, it
should seem, indicates a change from person to person; but He seems
still to speak to the first man, who said, "Let there be light," and,
"Let there be a firmament," and so on through each of those days; whom
we usually take to be God the Father, making by a word whatever He
willed to make. For He made all things by His word, which Word we
know, by the right rule of faith, to be His only Son. If, therefore,
God the Father spake to the first man, and Himself was walking in the
garden in the cool of the evening, and if it was from His face that
the sinner hid himself amongst the trees of the garden, why are we not
to go on to understand that it was He also who appeared to Abraham and
to Moses, and to whom He would, and how He would, through the
changeable and visible creature, subjected to Himself, while He
Himself remains in Himself and in His own substance, in which He is
unchangeable and invisible? But, possibly, it might be that the
Scripture passed over in a hidden way from person to person, and while
it had related that the Father said "Let there be light," and the rest
which it mentioned Him to have done by the Word, went on to indicate
the Son as speaking to the first man; not unfolding this openly, but
intimating it to be understood by those who could understand it.

18. Let him, then, who has the strength whereby he can penetrate this
secret with his mind's eye, so that to him it appears clearly, either
that the Father also is able, or that only the Son and Holy Spirit are
able, to appear to human eyes through a visible creature; let him, I
say, proceed to examine these things if he can, or even to express and
handle them in words; but the thing itself, so far as concerns this
testimony of Scripture, where God spake with man, is, in my judgment,
not discoverable, because it does not evidently appear even whether
Adam usually saw God with the eyes of his body; especially as it is a
great question what manner of eyes it was that were opened when they
tasted the forbidden fruit; [268] for before they had tasted, these
eyes were closed. Yet I would not rashly assert, even if that
scripture implies Paradise to have been a material place, that God
could not have walked there in any way except in some bodily form. For
it might be said, that only words were framed for the man to hear,
without seeing any form. Neither, because it is written, "Adam hid
himself from the face of God," does it follow forthwith that he
usually saw His face. For what if he himself indeed could not see, but
feared to be himself seen by Him whose voice he had heard, and had
felt His presence as he walked? For Cain, too, said to God, "From Thy
face I will hide myself;" [269] yet we are not therefore compelled to
admit that he was wont to behold the face of God with his bodily eyes
in any visible form, although he had heard the voice of God
questioning and speaking with him of his sin. But what manner of
speech it was that God then uttered to the outward ears of men,
especially in speaking to the first man, it is both difficult to
discover, and we have not undertaken to say in this discourse. But if
words alone and sounds were wrought, by which to bring about some
sensible presence of God to those first men, I do not know why I
should not there understand the person of God the Father, seeing that
His person is manifested also in that voice, when Jesus appeared in
glory on the mount before the three disciples; [270] and in that when
the dove descended upon Him at His baptism; [271] and in that where He
cried to the Father concerning His own glorification and it was
answered Him, "I have both glorified, and will glorify again." [272]
Not that the voice could be wrought without the work of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit (since the Trinity works indivisibly), but that such a
voice was wrought as to manifest the person of the Father only; just
as the Trinity wrought that human form from the Virgin Mary, yet it is
the person of the Son alone; for the invisible Trinity wrought the
visible person of the Son alone. Neither does anything forbid us, not
only to understand those words spoken to Adam as spoken by the
Trinity, but also to take them as manifesting the person of that
Trinity. For we are compelled to understand of the Father only, that
which is said, "This is my beloved Son." [273] For Jesus can neither
be believed nor understood to be the Son of the Holy Spirit, or even
His own Son. And where the voice uttered, "I have both glorified, and
will glorify again," we confess it was only the person of the Father;
since it is the answer to that word of the Lord, in which He had said,
"Father, glorify thy Son," which He could not say except to God the
Father only, and not also to the Holy Spirit, whose Son He was not.
But here, where it is written, "And the Lord God said to Adam," no
reason can be given why the Trinity itself should not be understood.

19. Likewise, also, in that which is written, "Now the Lord had said
unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and
thy father's house," it is not clear whether a voice alone came to the
ears of Abraham, or whether anything also appeared to his eyes. But a
little while after, it is somewhat more clearly said, "And the Lord
appeared unto Abraham, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land."
[274] But neither there is it expressly said in what form God appeared
to him, or whether the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit appeared
to him. Unless, perhaps, they think that it was the Son who appeared
to Abraham, because it is not written, God appeared to him, but "the
Lord appeared to him." For the Son seems to be called the Lord as
though the name was appropriated to Him; as e.g. the apostle says,
"For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in
earth, (as there be gods many and lords many,) but to us there is but
one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him." [275] But
since it is found that God the Father also is called Lord in many
places,--for instance, "The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son;
this day have I begotten Thee;" [276] and again, "The Lord said unto
my Lord, Sit Thou at my right hand;" [277] since also the Holy Spirit
is found to be called Lord, as where the apostle says, "Now the Lord
is that Spirit;" and then, lest any one should think the Son to be
signified, and to be called the Spirit on account of His incorporeal
substance, has gone on to say, "And where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is liberty;" [278] and no one ever doubted the Spirit of the
Lord to be the Holy Spirit: therefore, neither here does it appear
plainly whether it was any person of the Trinity that appeared to
Abraham, or God Himself the Trinity, of which one God it is said,
"Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and Him only shall thou serve."
[279] But under the oak at Mamre he saw three men, whom he invited,
and hospitably received, and ministered to them as they feasted. Yet
Scripture at the beginning of that narrative does not say, three men
appeared to him, but, "The Lord appeared to him." And then, setting
forth in due order after what manner the Lord appeared to him, it has
added the account of the three men, whom Abraham invites to his
hospitality in the plural number, and afterwards speaks to them in the
singular number as one; and as one He promises him a son by Sara, viz.
the one whom the Scripture calls Lord, as in the beginning of the same
narrative, "The Lord," it says, "appeared to Abraham." He invites them
then, and washes their feet, and leads them forth at their departure,
as though they were men; but he speaks as with the Lord God, whether
when a son is promised to him, or when the destruction is shown to him
that was impending over Sodom. [280]

Chapter 11.--Of the Same Appearance.

20. That place of Scripture demands neither a slight nor a passing
consideration. For if one man had appeared, what else would those at
once cry out, who say that the Son was visible also in His own
substance before He was born of the Virgin, but that it was Himself?
since it is said, they say, of the Father, "To the only invisible
God." [281] And yet, I could still go on to demand, in what manner "He
was found in fashion as a man," before He had taken our flesh, seeing
that his feet were washed, and that He fed upon earthly food? How
could that be, when He was still "in the form of God, and thought it
not robbery to be equal with God?" [282] For, pray, had He already
"emptied Himself, taking upon Him the form of a servant, and made in
the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man?" when we know when
it was that He did this through His birth of the Virgin. How, then,
before He had done this, did He appear as one man to Abraham? or, was
not that form a reality? I could put these questions, if it had been
one man that appeared to Abraham, and if that one were believed to be
the Son of God. But since three men appeared, and no one of them is
said to be greater than the rest either in form, or age, or power, why
should we not here understand, as visibly intimated by the visible
creature, the equality of the Trinity, and one and the same substance
in three persons? [283]

21. For, lest any one should think that one among the three is in this
way intimated to have been the greater, and that this one is to be
understood to have been the Lord, the Son of God, while the other two
were His angels; because, whereas three appeared, Abraham there speaks
to one as the Lord: Holy Scripture has not forgotten to anticipate, by
a contradiction, such future cogitations and opinions, when a little
while after it says that two angels came to Lot, among whom that just
man also, who deserved to be freed from the burning of Sodom, speaks
to one as to the Lord. For so Scripture goes on to say, "And the Lord
went His way, as soon as He left communing with Abraham; and Abraham
returned to his place." [284]

Footnotes

[281] 1 Tim. i. 17
[282] Phil. ii. 6, 7
[283] [The theophanies of the Pentateuch are trinitarian in their
implication. They involve distinctions in God--God sending, and God
sent; God speaking of God, and God speaking to God. The trinitarianism
of the Old Testament has been lost sight of to some extent in the
modern construction of the doctrine. The patristic, mediæval, and
reformation theologies worked this vein with thoroughness, and the
analysis of Augustin in this reference is worthy of careful
study.--W.G.T.S.]
[284] Gen. xviii. 33

Chapter 12.--The Appearance to Lot is Examined.

"But there came two angels to Sodom at even." Here, what I have begun
to set forth must be considered more attentively. Certainly Abraham
was speaking with three, and called that one, in the singular number,
the Lord. Perhaps, some one may say, he recognized one of the three to
be the Lord, but the other two His angels. What, then, does that mean
which Scripture goes on to say, "And the Lord went His way, as soon as
He had left communing with Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place:
and there came two angels to Sodom at even?" Are we to suppose that
the one who, among the three, was recognized as the Lord, had
departed, and had sent the two angels that were with Him to destroy
Sodom? Let us see, then, what follows. "There came," it is said, "two
angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot
seeing them, rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face
toward the ground; and he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray
you, into your servant's house." Here it is clear, both that there
were two angels, and that in the plural number they were invited to
partake of hospitality, and that they were honorably designated lords,
when they perchance were thought to be men.

22. Yet, again, it is objected that except they were known to be
angels of God, Lot would not have bowed himself with his face to the
ground. Why, then, is both hospitality and food offered to them, as
though they wanted such human succor? But whatever may here lie hid,
let us now pursue that which we have undertaken. Two appear; both are
called angels; they are invited plurally; he speaks as with two
plurally, until the departure from Sodom. And then Scripture goes on
to say, "And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad,
that they said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither
stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, and there thou
shalt be saved, [285] lest thou be consumed. And Lot said unto them,
Oh! not so, my lord: behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy
sight," [286] etc. What is meant by his saying to them, "Oh! not so,
my lord," if He who was the Lord had already departed, and had sent
the angels? Why is it said, "Oh! not so, my lord," and not, "Oh! not
so, my lords?" Or if he wished to speak to one of them, why does
Scripture say, "But Lot said to them, Oh! not so, my lord: behold now,
thy servant hath found grace in thy sight," etc.? Are we here, too, to
understand two persons in the plural number, but when the two are
addressed as one, then the one Lord God of one substance? But which
two persons do we here understand?--of the Father and of the Son, or
of the Father and of the Holy Spirit, or of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit? The last, perhaps, is the more suitable; for they said of
themselves that they were sent, which is that which we say of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit. For we find nowhere in the Scriptures that the
Father was sent. [287]

Footnotes

[285] This clause is not in the Hebrew.
[286] Gen. xix. 1-19
[287] [It is difficult to determine the details of this theophany,
beyond all doubt: namely, whether the "Jehovah" who "went his way as
soon as he had left communing with Abraham." (Gen. xviii. 33) joins
the "two angels" that "came to Sodom at even" (Gen xix. 1); or whether
one of these "two angels" is Jehovah himself. One or the other
supposition must be made; because a person is addressed by Lot as God
(Gen. xix. 18-20), and speaks to Lot as God (Gen. xix. 21, 22), and
acts as God (Gen. xix. 24). The Masorite marking of the word "lords"
in Gen. xix. 2, as "profane," i.e., to be taken in the human sense,
would favor the first supposition. The interchange of the singular and
plural, in the whole narrative is very striking. "It came to pass,
when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, escape for thy
life. And Lot said unto them. Oh not so, my Lord: behold now, thy
servant hath found grace in thy sight. And he said unto him, see I
have accepted thee; I will not overthrow the city of which thou hast
spoken." (Gen. xix. 17-21.)--W.G.T.S.]

Chapter 13.--The Appearance in the Bush.

23. But when Moses was sent to lead the children of Israel out of
Egypt, it is written that the Lord appeared to him thus: "Now Moses
kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and
he led the flock to the back side of the desert, and came to the
mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the Angel of the Lord appeared
unto him in a flame of fire, out of the midst of a bush; and he
looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not
consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great
sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned
aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and
said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob." [288] He is here also first called the
Angel of the Lord, and then God. Was an angel, then, the God of
Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? Therefore He may
be rightly understood to be the Saviour Himself, of whom the apostle
says, "Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh
Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever." [289] He,
therefore, "who is over all, God blessed for ever," is not
unreasonably here understood also to be Himself the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. But why is He previously
called the Angel of the Lord, when He appeared in a flame of fire out
of the bush? Was it because it was one of many angels, who by an
economy [or arrangement] bare the person of his Lord? or was something
of the creature assumed by Him in order to bring about a visible
appearance for the business in hand, and that words might thence be
audibly uttered, whereby the presence of the Lord might be shown, in
such way as was fitting, to the corporeal senses of man, by means of
the creature made subject? For if he was one of the angels, who could
easily affirm whether it was the person of the Son which was imposed
upon him to announce, or that of the Holy Spirit, or that of God the
Father, or altogether of the Trinity itself, who is the one and only
God, in order that he might say, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God
of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?" For we cannot say that the Son of God
is the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and
that the Father is not; nor will any one dare to deny that either the
Holy Spirit, or the Trinity itself, whom we believe and understand to
be the one God, is the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the
God of Jacob. For he who is not God, is not the God of those fathers.
Furthermore, if not only the Father is God, as all, even heretics,
admit; but also the Son, which, whether they will or not, they are
compelled to acknowledge, since the apostle says, "Who is over all,
God blessed for ever;" and the Holy Spirit, since the same apostle
says, "Therefore glorify God in your body;" when he had said above,
"Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is
in you, which ye have of God?" [290] and these three are one God, as
catholic soundness believes: it is not sufficiently apparent which
person of the Trinity that angel bare, if he was one of the rest of
the angels, and whether any person, and not rather that of the Trinity
itself. But if the creature was assumed for the purpose of the
business in hand, whereby both to appear to human eyes, and to sound
in human ears, and to be called the Angel of the Lord, and the Lord,
and God; then cannot God here be understood to be the Father, but
either the Son or the Holy Spirit. Although I cannot call to mind that
the Holy Spirit is anywhere else called an angel, which yet may be
understood from His work; for it is said of Him, "And He will show you
[291] things to come;" [292] and "angel" in Greek is certainly
equivalent to "messenger" [293] in Latin: but we read most evidently
of the Lord Jesus Christ in the prophet, that He is called "the Angel
of Great Counsel," [294] while both the Holy Spirit and the Son of God
is God and Lord of the angels.

Footnotes

Chapter 14.--Of the Appearance in the Pillar of Cloud and of Fire.

24. Also in the going forth of the children of Israel from Egypt it is
written, "And the Lord went before them, by day in a pillar of cloud
to lead them the way, and by night in a pillar of fire. He took not
away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night,
from before the people." [295] Who here, too, would doubt that God
appeared to the eyes of mortal men by the corporeal creature made
subject to Him, and not by His own substance? But it is not similarly
apparent whether the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit, or the
Trinity itself, the one God. Nor is this distinguished there either,
in my judgment, where it is written, "The glory of the Lord appeared
in the cloud, and the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, I have heard the
murmurings of the children of Israel," [296] etc.

Footnotes

[295] Ex. iii. 21, 22
[296] Ex. xvi. 10-12

Chapter 15.--Of the Appearance on Sinai. Whether the Trinity Spake in
that Appearance or Some One Person Specially.

25. But now of the clouds, and voices, and lightnings, and the
trumpet, and the smoke on Mount Sinai, when it was said, "And Mount
Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in
fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace; and
all the people that was in the camp trembled; and when the voice of
the trumpet sounded long and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and
God answered him by a voice." [297] And a little after, when the Law
had been given in the ten commandments, it follows in the text, "And
all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise
of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking." And a little after, "And
[when the people saw it,] they removed and stood afar off, and Moses
drew near unto the thick darkness [298] where God was, and the Lord
said unto Moses," [299] etc. What shall I say about this, save that no
one can be so insane as to believe the smoke, and the fire, and the
cloud, and the darkness, and whatever there was of the kind, to be the
substance of the word and wisdom of God which is Christ, or of the
Holy Spirit? For not even the Arians ever dared to say that they were
the substance of God the Father. All these things, then, were wrought
through the creature serving the Creator, and were presented in a
suitable economy (dispensatio) to human senses; unless, perhaps,
because it is said, "And Moses drew near to the cloud where God was,"
carnal thoughts must needs suppose that the cloud was indeed seen by
the people, but that within the cloud Moses with the eyes of the flesh
saw the Son of God, whom doting heretics will have to be seen in His
own substance. Forsooth, Moses may have seen Him with the eyes of the
flesh, if not only the wisdom of God which is Christ, but even that of
any man you please and howsoever wise, can be seen with the eyes of
the flesh; or if, because it is written of the elders of Israel, that
"they saw the place where the God of Israel had stood," and that
"there was under His feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone,
and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness," [300] therefore
we are to believe that the word and wisdom of God in His own substance
stood within the space of an earthly place, who indeed "reacheth
firmly from end to end, and sweetly ordereth all things;" [301] and
that the Word of God, by whom all things were made, [302] is in such
wise changeable, as now to contract, now to expand Himself; (may the
Lord cleanse the hearts of His faithful ones from such thoughts!) But
indeed all these visible and sensible things are, as we have often
said, exhibited through the creature made subject in order to signify
the invisible and intelligible God, not only the Father, but also the
Son and the Holy Spirit, "of whom are all things, and through whom are
all things, and in whom are all things;" [303] although "the invisible
things of God, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and
Godhead." [304]

26. But as far as concerns our present undertaking, neither on Mount
Sinai do I see how it appears, by all those things which were
fearfully displayed to the senses of mortal men, whether God the
Trinity spake, or the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit
severally. But if it is allowable, without rash assertion, to venture
upon a modest and hesitating conjecture from this passage, if it is
possible to understand it of one person of the Trinity, why do we not
rather understand the Holy Spirit to be spoken of, since the Law
itself also, which was given there, is said to have been written upon
tables of stone with the finger of God, [305] by which name we know
the Holy Spirit to be signified in the Gospel. [306] And fifty days
are numbered from the slaying of the lamb and the celebration of the
Passover until the day in which these things began to be done in Mount
Sinai; just as after the passion of our Lord fifty days are numbered
from His resurrection, and then came the Holy Spirit which the Son of
God had promised. And in that very coming of His, which we read of in
the Acts of the Apostles, there appeared cloven tongues like as of
fire, and it sat upon each of them: [307] which agrees with Exodus,
where it is written, "And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke,
because the Lord descended upon it in fire;" and a little after, "And
the sight of the glory of the Lord," he says, "was like devouring fire
on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel." [308]
Or if these things were therefore wrought because neither the Father
nor the Son could be there presented in that mode without the Holy
Spirit, by whom the Law itself must needs be written; then we know
doubtless that God appeared there, not by His own substance, which
remains invisible and unchangeable, but by the appearance above
mentioned of the creature; but that some special person of the Trinity
appeared, distinguished by a proper mark, as far as my capacity of
understanding reaches, we do not see.

Chapter 16.--In What Manner Moses Saw God.

26. There is yet another difficulty which troubles most people, viz.
that it is written, "And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a
man speaketh unto his friend;" whereas a little after, the same Moses
says, "Now therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found grace in Thy sight,
show me now Thyself plainly, that I may see Thee, that I may find
grace in Thy sight, and that I may consider that this nation is Thy
people;" and a little after Moses again said to the Lord, "Show me Thy
glory." What means this then, that in everything which was done, as
above said, God was thought to have appeared by His own substance;
whence the Son of God has been believed by these miserable people to
be visible not by the creature, but by Himself; and that Moses,
entering into the cloud, appeared to have had this very object in
entering, that a cloudy darkness indeed might be shown to the eyes of
the people, but that Moses within might hear the words of God, as
though he beheld His face; and, as it is said, "And the Lord spake
unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend;" and yet,
behold, the same Moses says, "If I have found grace in Thy sight, show
me Thyself plainly?" Assuredly he knew that he saw corporeally, and he
sought the true sight of God spiritually. And that mode of speech
accordingly which was wrought in words, was so modified, as if it were
of a friend speaking to a friend. Yet who sees God the Father with the
eyes of the body? And that Word, which was in the beginning, the Word
which was with God, the Word which was God, by which all things were
made, [309] --who sees Him with the eyes of the body? And the spirit
of wisdom, again, who sees with the eyes of the body? Yet what is,
"Show me now Thyself plainly, that I may see Thee," unless, Show me
Thy substance? But if Moses had not said this, we must indeed have
borne with those foolish people as we could, who think that the
substance of God was made visible to his eyes through those things
which, as above mentioned, were said or done. But when it is here
demonstrated most evidently that this was not granted to him, even
though he desired it; who will dare to say, that by the like forms
which had appeared visibly to him also, not the creature serving God,
but that itself which is God, appeared to the eyes of a mortal man?

28. Add, too, that which the Lord afterward said to Moses, "Thou canst
not see my face: for there shall no man see my face, and live. And the
Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shall stand upon a
rock: and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I
will put thee into a watch-tower [310] of the rock, and will cover
thee with my hand while I pass by: and I will take away my hand, and
thou shalt see my back parts; but my face shall not be seen." [311]

Footnotes

[309] John i. 1, 3
[310] Clift--A.V. Spelunca is one reading in S. Aug., but the
Benedictines read specula = watch-tower, which the context proves to
be certainly right.
[311] Ex. xxxiii. 11-23

Chapter 17.--How the Back Parts of God Were Seen. The Faith of the
Resurrection of Christ. The Catholic Church Only is the Place from
Whence the Back Parts of God are Seen. The Back Parts of God Were Seen
by the Israelites. It is a Rash Opinion to Think that God the Father
Only Was Never Seen by the Fathers.

Not unfitly is it commonly understood to be prefigured from the person
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that His "back parts" are to be taken to be
His flesh, in which He was born of the Virgin, and died, and rose
again; whether they are called back parts [312] on account of the
posteriority of mortality, or because it was almost in the end of the
world, that is, at a late period, [313] that He deigned to take it:
but that His "face" was that form of God, in which He "thought it not
robbery to be equal with God," [314] which no one certainly can see
and live; whether because after this life, in which we are absent from
the Lord, [315] and where the corruptible body presseth down the soul,
[316] we shall see "face to face," [317] as the apostle says--(for it
is said in the Psalms, of this life, "Verily every man living is
altogether vanity;" [318] and again, "For in Thy sight shall no man
living be justified;" [319] and in this life also, according to John,
"It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know," he says, "that
when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He
is," [320] which he certainly intended to be understood as after this
life, when we shall have paid the debt of death, and shall have
received the promise of the resurrection);--or whether that even now,
in whatever degree we spiritually understand the wisdom of God, by
which all things were made, in that same degree we die to carnal
affections, so that, considering this world dead to us, we also
ourselves die to this world, and say what the apostle says, "The world
is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." [321] For it was of this
death that he also says, "Wherefore, if ye be dead with Christ, why as
though living in the world are ye subject to ordinances?" [322] Not
therefore without cause will no one be able to see the "face," that
is, the manifestation itself of the wisdom of God, and live. For it is
this very appearance, for the contemplation of which every one sighs
who strives to love God with all his heart, and with all his soul, and
with all his mind; to the contemplation of which, he who loves his
neighbor, too, as himself builds up his neighbor also as far as he
may; on which two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
[323] And this is signified also in Moses himself. For when he had
said, on account of the love of God with which he was specially
inflamed, "If I have found grace in thy sight, show me now Thyself
plainly, that I may find grace in Thy sight;" he immediately
subjoined, on account of the love also of his neighbor, "And that I
may know that this nation is Thy people." It is therefore that
"appearance" which hurries away every rational soul with the desire of
it, and the more ardently the more pure that soul is; and it is the
more pure the more it rises to spiritual things; and it rises the more
to spiritual things the more it dies to carnal things. But whilst we
are absent from the Lord, and walk by faith, not by sight, [324] we
ought to see the "back parts" of Christ, that is His flesh, by that
very faith, that is, standing on the solid foundation of faith, which
the rock signifies, [325] and beholding it from such a safe
watch-tower, namely in the Catholic Church, of which it is said, "And
upon this rock I will build my Church." [326] For so much the more
certainly we love that face of Christ, which we earnestly desire to
see, as we recognize in His back parts how much first Christ loved us.

29. But in the flesh itself, the faith in His resurrection saves and
justifies us. For, "If thou shalt believe," he says, "in thine heart,
that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved;" [327]
and again, "Who was delivered," he says, "for our offenses, and was
raised again for our justification." [328] So that the reward of our
faith is the resurrection of the body of our Lord. [329] For even His
enemies believe that that flesh died on the cross of His passion, but
they do not believe it to have risen again. Which we believing most
firmly, gaze upon it as from the solidity of a rock: whence we wait
with certain hope for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our
body; [330] because we hope for that in the members of Christ, that
is, in ourselves, which by a sound faith we acknowledge to be perfect
in Him as in our Head. Thence it is that He would not have His back
parts seen, unless as He passed by, that His resurrection may be
believed. For that which is Pascha in Hebrew, is translated Passover.
[331] Whence John the Evangelist also says, "Before the feast of the
Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was come, that He should pass
out of this world unto the Father." [332]

30. But they who believe this, but believe it not in the Catholic
Church, but in some schism or in heresy, do not see the back parts of
the Lord from "the place that is by Him." For what does that mean
which the Lord says, "Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt
stand upon a rock?" What earthly place is "by" the Lord, unless that
is "by Him" which touches Him spiritually? For what place is not "by"
the Lord, who "reacheth from one end to another mightily, and sweetly
doth order all things," [333] and of whom it is said, "Heaven is His
throne, and earth is His footstool;" and who said, "Where is the house
that ye build unto me, and where is the place of my rest? For has not
my hand made all those things?" [334] But manifestly the Catholic
Church itself is understood to be "the place by Him," wherein one
stands upon a rock, where he healthfully sees the "Pascha Domini,"
that is, the "Passing by" [335] of the Lord, and His back parts, that
is, His body, who believes in His resurrection. "And thou shalt
stand," He says, "upon a rock while my glory passeth by." For in
reality, immediately after the majesty of the Lord had passed by in
the glorification of the Lord, in which He rose again and ascended to
the Father, we stood firm upon the rock. And Peter himself then stood
firm, so that he preached Him with confidence, whom, before he stood
firm, he had thrice from fear denied; [336] although, indeed, already
before placed in predestination upon the watch-tower of the rock, but
with the hand of the Lord still held over him that he might not see.
For he was to see His back parts, and the Lord had not yet "passed
by," namely, from death to life; He had not yet been glorified by the
resurrection.

31. For as to that, too, which follows in Exodus, "I will cover thee
with mine hand while I pass by, and I will take away my hand and thou
shalt see my back parts;" many Israelites, of whom Moses was then a
figure, believed in the Lord after His resurrection, as if His hand
had been taken off from their eyes, and they now saw His back parts.
And hence the evangelist also mentions that prophesy of Isaiah, "Make
the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut
their eyes." [337] Lastly, in the Psalm, that is not unreasonably
understood to be said in their person, "For day and night Thy hand was
heavy upon me." "By day," perhaps, when He performed manifest
miracles, yet was not acknowledged by them; but "by night," when He
died in suffering, when they thought still more certainly that, like
any one among men, He was cut off and brought to an end. But since,
when He had already passed by, so that His back parts were seen, upon
the preaching to them by the Apostle Peter that it behoved Christ to
suffer and rise again, they were pricked in their hearts with the
grief of repentance, [338] that that might come to pass among the
baptized which is said in the beginning of that Psalm, "Blessed are
they whose transgressions are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;"
therefore, after it had been said, "Thy hand is heavy upon me," the
Lord, as it were, passing by, so that now He removed His hand, and His
back parts were seen, there follows the voice of one who grieves and
confesses and receives remission of sins by faith in the resurrection
of the Lord: "My moisture," he says, "is turned into the drought of
summer. I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not
hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and Thou
forgavest the iniquity of my sin." [339] For we ought not to be so
wrapped up in the darkness of the flesh, as to think the face indeed
of God to be invisible, but His back visible, since both appeared
visibly in the form of a servant; but far be it from us to think
anything of the kind in the form of God; far be it from us to think
that the Word of God and the Wisdom of God has a face on one side, and
on the other a back, as a human body has, or is at all changed either
in place or time by any appearance or motion. [340]

32. Wherefore, if in those words which were spoken in Exodus, and in
all those corporeal appearances, the Lord Jesus Christ was manifested;
or if in some cases Christ was manifested, as the consideration of
this passage persuades us, in others the Holy Spirit, as that which we
have said above admonishes us; at any rate no such result follows, as
that God the Father never appeared in any such form to the Fathers.
For many such appearances happened in those times, without either the
Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit being expressly named and
designated in them; but yet with some intimations given through
certain very probable interpretations, so that it would be too rash to
say that God the Father never appeared by any visible forms to the
fathers or the prophets. For they gave birth to this opinion who were
not able to understand in respect to the unity of the Trinity such
texts as, "Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only
wise God;" [341] and, "Whom no man hath seen, nor can see." [342]
Which texts are understood by a sound faith in that substance itself,
the highest, and in the highest degree divine and unchangeable,
whereby both the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is the one and
only God. But those visions were wrought through the changeable
creature, made subject to the unchangeable God, and did not manifest
God properly as He is, but by intimations such as suited the causes
and times of the several circumstances.

Chapter 18.--The Vision of Daniel.

33. [343] I do not know in what manner these men understand that the
Ancient of Days appeared to Daniel, from whom the Son of man, which He
deigned to be for our sakes, is understood to have received the
kingdom; namely, from Him who says to Him in the Psalms, "Thou art my
Son; this day have I begotten Thee; ask of me, and I shall give Thee
the heathen for Thine inheritance;" [344] and who has "put all things
under His feet." [345] If, however, both the Father giving the
kingdom, and the Son receiving it, appeared to Daniel in bodily form,
how can those men say that the Father never appeared to the prophets,
and, therefore, that He only ought to be understood to be invisible
whom no man has seen, nor can see? For Daniel has told us thus: "I
beheld," he says, "till the thrones were set, [346] and the Ancient of
Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His
head like the pure wool: His throne was like the fiery flame, and His
wheels as burning fire; a fiery stream issued and came forth from
before Him: thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand
times ten thousand stood before Him: the judgment was set, and the
books were opened," etc. And a little after, "I saw," he says, "in the
night visions, and behold, one like the Son of man came with the
clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought
Him near before Him. And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and
a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him:
His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away,
and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." [347] Behold the
Father giving, and the Son receiving, an eternal kingdom; and both are
in the sight of him who prophesies, in a visible form. It is not,
therefore, unsuitably believed that God the Father also was wont to
appear in that manner to mortals.

34. Unless, perhaps, some one shall say, that the Father is therefore
not visible, because He appeared within the sight of one who was
dreaming; but that therefore the Son and the Holy Spirit are visible,
because Moses saw all those things being awake; as if, forsooth, Moses
saw the Word and the Wisdom of God with fleshly eyes, or that even the
human spirit which quickens that flesh can be seen, or even that
corporeal thing which is called wind;--how much less can that Spirit
of God be seen, who transcends the minds of all men, and of angels, by
the ineffable excellence of the divine substance? Or can any one fall
headlong into such an error as to dare to say, that the Son and the
Holy Spirit are visible also to men who are awake, but that the Father
is not visible except to those who dream? How, then, do they
understand that of the Father alone, "Whom no man hath seen, nor can
see."? When men sleep, are they then not men? Or cannot He, who can
fashion the likeness of a body to signify Himself through the visions
of dreamers, also fashion that same bodily creature to signify Himself
to the eyes of those who are awake? Whereas His own very substance,
whereby He Himself is that which He is, cannot be shown by any bodily
likeness to one who sleeps, or by any bodily appearance to one who is
awake; but this not of the Father only, but also of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit. And certainly, as to those who are moved by the visions
of waking men to believe that not the Father, but only the Son, or the
Holy Spirit, appeared to the corporeal sight of men,--to omit the
great extent of the sacred pages, and their manifold interpretation,
such that no one of sound reason ought to affirm that the person of
the Father was nowhere shown to the eyes of waking men by any
corporeal appearance;--but, as I said, to omit this, what do they say
of our father Abraham, who was certainly awake and ministering, when,
after Scripture had premised, "The Lord appeared unto Abraham," not
one, or two, but three men appeared to him; no one of whom is said to
have stood prominently above the others, no one more than the others
to have shone with greater glory, or to have acted more
authoritatively? [348]

35. Wherefore, since in that our threefold division we determined to
inquire, [349] first, whether the Father, or the Son, or the Holy
Spirit; or whether sometimes the Father, sometimes the Son, sometimes
the Holy Spirit; or whether, without any distinction of persons, as it
is said, the one and only God, that is, the Trinity itself, appeared
to the fathers through those forms of the creature: now that we have
examined, so far as appeared to be sufficient what places of the Holy
Scriptures we could, a modest and cautious consideration of divine
mysteries leads, as far as I can judge, to no other conclusion, unless
that we may not rashly affirm which person of the Trinity appeared to
this or that of the fathers or the prophets in some body or likeness
of body, unless when the context attaches to the narrative some
probable intimations on the subject. For the nature itself, or
substance, or essence, or by whatever other name that very thing,
which is God, whatever it be, is to be called, cannot be seen
corporeally: but we must believe that by means of the creature made
subject to Him, not only the Son, or the Holy Spirit, but also the
Father, may have given intimations of Himself to mortal senses by a
corporeal form or likeness. And since the case stands thus, that this
second book may not extend to an immoderate length, let us consider
what remains in those which follow.

Book III.

The question is discussed with respect to the appearances of God
spoken of in the previous book, which were made under bodily forms,
whether only a creature was formed, for the purpose of manifesting God
to human sight in such way as He at each time judged fitting; or
whether angels, already existing, were so sent as to speak in the
person of God; and this, either by assuming a bodily appearance from
the bodily creature, or by changing their own bodies into whatever
forms they would, suitable to the particular action, according to the
power given to them by the Creator; while the essence itself of God
was never seen in itself.

Preface.--Why Augustin Writes of the Trinity. What He Claims from
Readers. What Has Been Said in the Previous Book.

1. I Would have them believe, who are willing to do so, that I had
rather bestow labor in reading, than in dictating what others may
read. But let those who will not believe this, but are both able and
willing to make the trial, grant me whatever answers may be gathered
from reading, either to my own inquiries, or to those interrogations
of others, which for the character I bear in the service of Christ,
and for the zeal with which I burn that our faith may be fortified
against the error of carnal and natural men, [350] I must needs bear
with; and then let them see how easily I would refrain from this
labor, and with how much even of joy I would give my pen a holiday.
But if what we have read upon these subjects is either not
sufficiently set forth, or is not to be found at all, or at any rate
cannot easily be found by us, in the Latin tongue, while we are not so
familiar with the Greek tongue as to be found in any way competent to
read and understand therein the books that treat of such topics, in
which class of writings, to judge by the little which has been
translated for us, I do not doubt that everything is contained that we
can profitably seek; [351] while yet I cannot resist my brethren when
they exact of me, by that law by which I am made their servant, that I
should minister above all to their praiseworthy studies in Christ by
my tongue and by my pen, of which two yoked together in me, Love is
the charioteer; and while I myself confess that I have by writing
learned many things which I did not know: if this be so, then this my
labor ought not to seem superfluous to any idle, or to any very
learned reader; while it is needful in no small part, to many who are
busy, and to many who are unlearned,and among these last to myself.
Supported, then, very greatly, and aided by the writings we have
already read of others on this subject, I have undertaken to inquire
into and to discuss, whatever it seems to my judgment can be
reverently inquired into and discussed, concerning the Trinity, the
one supreme and supremely good God; He himself exhorting me to the
inquiry, and helping me in the discussion of it; in order that, if
there are no other writings of the kind, there may be something for
those to have and read who are willing and capable; but if any exist
already, then it may be so much the easier to find some such writings,
the more there are of the kind in existence.

2. Assuredly, as in all my writings I desire not only a pious reader,
but also a free corrector, so I especially desire this in the present
inquiry, which is so important that I would there were as many
inquirers as there are objectors. But as I do not wish my reader to be
bound down to me, so I do not wish my corrector to be bound down to
himself. Let not the former love me more than the catholic faith, let
not the latter love himself more than the catholic verity. As I say to
the former, Do not be willing to yield to my writings as to the
canonical Scriptures; but in these, when thou hast discovered even
what thou didst not previously believe, believe it unhesitatingly;
while in those, unless thou hast understood with certainty what thou
didst not before hold as certain, be unwilling to hold it fast: so I
say to the latter, Do not be willing to amend my writings by thine own
opinion or disputation, but from the divine text, or by unanswerable
reason. If thou apprehendest anything of truth in them, its being
there does not make it mine, but by understanding and loving it, let
it be both thine and mine; but if thou convictest anything of
falsehood, though it have once been mine, in that I was guilty of the
error, yet now by avoiding it let it be neither thine nor mine.

3. Let this third book, then, take its beginning at the point to which
the second had reached. For after we had arrived at this, that we
desired to show that the Son was not therefore less than the Father,
because the Father sent and the Son was sent; nor the Holy Spirit
therefore less than both, because we read in the Gospel that He was
sent both by the one and by the other; we undertook then to inquire,
since the Son was sent thither, where He already was, for He came into
the world, and "was in the world;" [352] since also the Holy Spirit
was sent thither, where He already was, for "the Spirit of the Lord
filleth the world, and that which containeth all things hath knowledge
of the voice;" [353] whether the Lord was therefore "sent" because He
was born in the flesh so as to be no longer hidden, and, as it were,
came forth from the bosom of the Father, and appeared to the eyes of
men in the form of a servant; and the Holy Spirit also was therefore
"sent," because He too was seen as a dove in a corporeal form, [354]
and in cloven tongues, like as of fire; [355] so that, to be sent,
when spoken of them, means to go forth to the sight of mortals in some
corporeal form from a spiritual hiding-place; which, because the
Father did not, He is said only to have sent, not also to be sent. Our
next inquiry was, Why the Father also is not sometimes said to be
sent, if He Himself was manifested through those corporeal forms which
appeared to the eyes of the ancients. But if the Son was manifested at
these times, why should He be said to be "sent" so long after, when
the fullness of time was come that He should be born of a woman; [356]
since, indeed, He was sent before also, viz., when He appeared
corporeally in those forms? Or if He were not rightly said to be
"sent," except when the Word was made flesh; [357] why should the Holy
Spirit be read of as "sent," of whom such an incarnation never took
place? But if neither the Father, nor the Son, but the Holy Spirit was
manifested through these ancient appearances; why should He too be
said to be "sent" now, when He was also sent before in these various
manners? Next we subdivided the subject, that it might be handled most
carefully, and we made the question threefold, of which one part was
explained in the second book, and two remain, which I shall next
proceed to discuss. For we have already inquired and determined, that
not only the Father, nor only the Son, nor only the Holy Spirit
appeared in those ancient corporeal forms and visions, but either
indifferently the Lord God, who is understood to be the Trinity
itself, or some one person of the Trinity, whichever the text of the
narrative might signify, through intimations supplied by the context.

Footnotes

[350] [The English translator renders "animalium" by "psychical," to
agree with psuchikos in 1 Cor. ii. 14. The rendering "natural" of the
A.V. is more familiar.--W.G.T.S.]
[351] [This is an important passage with reference to Augustin's
learning. From it, it would appear that he had not read the Greek
Trinitarians in the original, and that only "a little" of these had
been translated, at the time when he was composing this treatise. As
this was from A.D. 400 to A.D. 416--, the treatises of Athanasius (d.
373), Basil (d. 379), Gregory of Nyssa (d. 400?), and Gregory of
Nazianzum (d. 390?) had been composed and were current in the Eastern
church. That Augustin thought out this profound scheme of the doctrine
of the Trinity by the close study of Scripture alone, and unassisted
by the equally profound trinitarianism of the Greek church, is an
evidence of the depth and strength of his remarkable
intellect.--W.G.T.S.]
[352] John i. 10
[353] Wisd. i. 7
[354] Matt. iii. 16
[355] Acts ii. 3
[356] Gal. iv. 4
[357] John i. 14

Chapter 1.--What is to Be Said Thereupon.

4. Let us, then, continue our inquiry now in order. For under the
second head in that division the question occurred, whether the
creature was formed for that work only, wherein God, in such way as He
then judged it to be fitting, might be manifested to human sight; or
whether angels, who already existed, were so sent as to speak in the
person of God, assuming a corporeal appearance from the corporeal
creature for the purpose of their ministry; or else changing and
turning their own body itself, to which they are not subject, but
govern it as subject to themselves, into whatever forms they would,
that were appropriate and fit for their actions, according to the
power given to them by the Creator. And when this part of the question
shall have been investigated, so far as God permit, then, lastly, we
shall have to see to that question with which we started, viz.,
whether the Son and the Holy Spirit were also "sent" before; and if it
be so, then what difference there is between that sending and the one
of which we read in the Gospel; or whether neither of them were sent,
except when either the Son was made of the Virgin Mary, or when the
Holy Spirit appeared in a visible form, whether as a dove or in
tongues of fire. [358]

5. I confess, however, that it reaches further than my purpose can
carry me to inquire whether the angels, secretly working by the
spiritual quality of their body abiding still in them, assume somewhat
from the inferior and more bodily elements, which, being fitted to
themselves, they may change and turn like a garment into any corporeal
appearances they will, and those appearances themselves also real, as
real water was changed by our Lord into real wine; [359] or whether
they transform their own bodies themselves into that which they would,
suitably to the particular act. But it does not signify to the present
question which of these it is. And although I be not able to
understand these things by actual experience, seeing that I am a man,
as the angels do who do these things, and know them better than I know
them, viz., how far my body is changeable by the operation of my will;
whether it be by my own experience of myself, or by that which I have
gathered from others; yet it is not necessary here to say which of
these alternatives I am to believe upon the authority of the divine
Scriptures, lest I be compelled to prove it, and so my discourse
become too long upon a subject which does not concern the present
question.

6. Our present inquiry then is, whether the angels were then the
agents both in showing those bodily appearances to the eyes of men and
in sounding those words in their ears when the sensible creature
itself, serving the Creator at His beck, was turned for the time into
whatever was needful; as it is written in the book of Wisdom, "For the
creature serveth Thee, who art the Maker, increaseth his strength
against the unrighteous for their punishment, and abateth his strength
for the benefit of such as put their trust in Thee. Therefore, even
then was it altered into all fashions, and was obedient to Thy grace,
that nourisheth all things according to the desire of them that longed
for Thee." [360] For the power of the will of God reaches through the
spiritual creature even to visible and sensible effects of the
corporeal creature. For where does not the wisdom of the omnipotent
God work that which He wills, which "reacheth from one end to another
mightily, and sweetly doth order all things"? [361]

Footnotes

Chapter 2.--The Will of God is the Higher Cause of All Corporeal
Change. This is Shown by an Example.

7. But there is one kind of natural order in the conversion and
changeableness of bodies, which, although itself also serves the
bidding of God, yet by reason of its unbroken continuity has ceased to
cause wonder; as is the case, for instance, with those things which
are changed either in very short, or at any rate not long, intervals
of time, in heaven, or earth, or sea; whether it be in rising, or in
setting, or in change of appearance from time to time; while there are
other things, which, although arising from that same order, yet are
less familiar on account of longer intervals of time. And these
things, although the many stupidly wonder at them, yet are understood
by those who inquire into this present world, and in the progress of
generations become so much the less wonderful, as they are the more
often repeated and known by more people. Such are the eclipses of the
sun and moon, and some kinds of stars, appearing seldom, and
earthquakes, and unnatural births of living creatures, and other
similar things; of which not one takes place without the will of God;
yet, that it is so, is to most people not apparent. And so the vanity
of philosophers has found license to assign these things also to other
causes, true causes perhaps, but proximate ones, while they are not
able to see at all the cause that is higher than all others, that is,
the will of God; or again to false causes, and to such as are not even
put forward out of any diligent investigation of corporeal things and
motions, but from their own guess and error.

8. I will bring forward an example, if I can, that this may be
plainer. There is, we know, in the human body, a certain bulk of flesh
and an outward form, and an arrangement and distraction of limbs, and
a temperament of health; and a soul breathed into it governs this
body, and that soul a rational one; which, therefore, although
changeable, yet can be partaker of that unchangeable wisdom, so that
"it may partake of that which is in and of itself;" [362] as it is
written in the Psalm concerning all saints, of whom as of living
stones is built that Jerusalem which is the mother of us all, eternal
in the heavens. For so it is sung, "Jerusalem is builded as a city,
that is partaker of that which is in and of itself." [363] For "in and
of itself," in that place, is understood of that chiefest and
unchangeable good, which is God, and of His own wisdom and will. To
whom is sung in another place, "Thou shalt change them, and they shall
be changed; but Thou art the same." [364]

Footnotes

[362] [The original is: "ut sit participatio ejus in idipsum." The
English translator renders: "So that it may partake thereof in
itself." The thought of Augustin is, that the believing soul though
mutable partakes of the immutable; and he designates the immutable as
the in idipsum: the self-existent. In that striking passage in the
Confessions, in which he describes the spiritual and extatic
meditations of himself and his mother, as they looked out upon the
Mediterranean from the windows at Ostia--a scene well known from Ary
Schefer's painting--he denominates God the idipsum: the "self same"
(Confessions IX. x). Augustin refers to the same absolute immutability
of God, in this place. By faith, man is "a partaker of a divine
nature," (2 Pet. i. 4.)--W.G.T.S.]
[363] Ps. cxxii. 3. Vulg.
[364] Ps. cii. 26, 27

Chapter 3.--Of the Same Argument.

Let us take, then, the case of a wise man, such that his rational soul
is already partaker of the unchangeable and eternal truth, so that he
consults it about all his actions, nor does anything at all, which he
does not by it know ought to be done, in order that by being subject
to it and obeying it he may do rightly. Suppose now that this man,
upon counsel with the highest reason of the divine righteousness,
which he hears with the ear of his heart in secret, and by its
bidding, should weary his body by toil in some office of mercy, and
should contract an illness; and upon consulting the physicians, were
to be told by one that the cause of the disease was overmuch dryness
of the body, but by another that it was overmuch moisture; one of the
two no doubt would allege the true cause and the other would err, but
both would pronounce concerning proximate causes only, that is,
corporeal ones. But if the cause of that dryness were to be inquired
into, and found to be the self-imposed toil, then we should have come
to a yet higher cause, which proceeds from the soul so as to affect
the body which the soul governs. Yet neither would this be the first
cause, for that doubtless was a higher cause still, and lay in the
unchangeable wisdom itself, by serving which in love, and by obeying
its ineffable commands, the soul of the wise man had undertaken that
self-imposed toil; and so nothing else but the will of God would be
found most truly to be the first cause of that illness. But suppose
now in that office of pious toil this wise man had employed the help
of others to co-operate in the good work, who did not serve God with
the same will as himself, but either desired to attain the reward of
their own carnal desires, or shunned merely carnal
unpleasantnesses;--suppose, too, he had employed beasts of burden, if
the completion of the work required such a provision, which beasts of
burden would be certainly irrational animals, and would not therefore
move their limbs under their burdens because they at all thought of
that good work, but from the natural appetite of their own liking, and
for the avoiding of annoyance;--suppose, lastly, he had employed
bodily things themselves that lack all sense, but were necessary for
that work, as e.g. corn, and wine, and oils, clothes, or money, or a
book, or anything of the kind;--certainly, in all these bodily things
thus employed in this work, whether animate or inanimate, whatever
took place of movement, of wear and tear, of reparation, of
destruction, of renewal or of change in one way or another, as places
and times affected them; pray, could there be, I say, any other cause
of all these visible and changeable facts, except the invisible and
unchangeable will of God, using all these, both bad and irrational
souls, and lastly bodies, whether such as were inspired and animated
by those souls, or such as lacked all sense, by means of that upright
soul as the seat of His wisdom, since primarily that good and holy
soul itself employed them, which His wisdom had subjected to itself in
a pious and religious obedience?

Chapter 4.--God Uses All Creatures as He Will, and Makes Visible
Things for the Manifestation of Himself.

9. What, then, we have alleged by way of example of a single wise man,
although of one still bearing a mortal body and still seeing only in
part, may be allowably extended also to a family, where there is a
society of such men, or to a city, or even to the whole world, if the
chief rule and government of human affairs were in the hands of the
wise, and of those who were piously and perfectly subject to God; but
because this is not the case as yet (for it behoves us first to be
exercised in this our pilgrimage after mortal fashion, and to be
taught with stripes by force of gentleness and patience), let us turn
our thoughts to that country itself that is above and heavenly, from
which we here are pilgrims. For there the will of God, "who maketh His
angels spirits, and His ministers a flaming fire," [365] presiding
among spirits which are joined in perfect peace and friendship, and
combined in one will by a kind of spiritual fire of charity, as it
were in an elevated and holy and secret seat, as in its own house and
in its own temple, thence diffuses itself through all things by
certain most perfectly ordered movements of the creature; first
spiritual, then corporeal; and uses all according to the unchangeable
pleasure of its own purpose, whether incorporeal things or things
corporeal, whether rational or irrational spirits, whether good by His
grace or evil through their own will. But as the more gross and
inferior bodies are governed in due order by the more subtle and
powerful ones, so all bodies are governed by the living spirit; and
the living spirit devoid of reason, by the reasonable living spirit;
and the reasonable living spirit that makes default and sins, by the
living and reasonable spirit that is pious and just; and that by God
Himself, and so the universal creature by its Creator, from whom and
through whom and in whom it is also created and established. [366] And
so it comes to pass that the will of God is the first and the highest
cause of all corporeal appearances and motions. For nothing is done
visibly or sensibly, unless either by command or permission from the
interior palace, invisible and intelligible, of the supreme Governor,
according to the unspeakable justice of rewards and punishments, of
favor and retribution, in that far-reaching and boundless commonwealth
of the whole creature.

10. If, therefore, the Apostle Paul, although he still bare the burden
of the body, which is subject to corruption and presseth down the
soul, [367] and although he still saw only in part and in an enigma,
[368] wishing to depart and be with Christ, [369] and groaning within
himself, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of his body,
[370] yet was able to preach the Lord Jesus Christ significantly, in
one way by his tongue, in another by epistle, in another by the
sacrament of His body and blood (since, certainly, we do not call
either the tongue of the apostle, or the parchments, or the ink, or
the significant sounds which his tongue uttered, or the alphabetical
signs written on skins, the body and blood of Christ; but that only
which we take of the fruits of the earth and consecrate by mystic
prayer, and then receive duly to our spiritual health in memory of the
passion of our Lord for us: and this, although it is brought by the
hands of men to that visible form, yet is not sanctified to become so
great a sacrament, except by the spirit of God working invisibly;
since God works everything that is done in that work through corporeal
movements, by setting in motion primarily the invisible things of His
servants, whether the souls of men, or the services of hidden spirits
subject to Himself): what wonder if also in the creature of heaven and
earth, of sea and air, God works the sensible and visible things which
He wills, in order to signify and manifest Himself in them, as He
Himself knows it to be fitting, without any appearing of His very
substance itself, whereby He is, which is altogether unchangeable, and
more inwardly and secretly exalted than all spirits whom He has
created?

Footnotes

Chapter 5.--Why Miracles are Not Usual Works.

11. For since the divine power administers the whole spiritual and
corporeal creature, the waters of the sea are summoned and poured out
upon the face of the earth on certain days of every year. But when
this was done at the prayer of the holy Elijah; because so continued
and long a course of fair weather had gone before, that men were
famished; and because at that very hour, in which the servant of God
prayed, the air itself had not, by any moist aspect, put forth signs
of the coming rain; the divine power was apparent in the great and
rapid showers that followed, and by which that miracle was granted and
dispensed. [371] In like manner, God works ordinarily through thunders
and lightnings: but because these were wrought in an unusual manner on
Mount Sinai, and those sounds were not uttered with a confused noise,
but so that it appeared by most sure proofs that certain intimations
were given by them, they were miracles. [372] Who draws up the sap
through the root of the vine to the bunch of grapes, and makes the
wine, except God; who, while man plants and waters, Himself giveth the
increase? [373] But when, at the command of the Lord, the water was
turned into wine with an extraordinary quickness, the divine power was
made manifest, by the confession even of the foolish. [374] Who
ordinarily clothes the trees with leaves and flowers except God? Yet,
when the rod of Aaron the priest blossomed, the Godhead in some way
conversed with doubting humanity. [375] Again, the earthy matter
certainly serves in common to the production and formation both of all
kinds of wood and of the flesh of all animals: and who makes these
things, but He who said, Let the earth bring them forth; [376] and who
governs and guides by the same word of His, those things which He has
created? Yet, when He changed the same matter out of the rod of Moses
into the flesh of a serpent, immediately and quickly, that change,
which was unusual, although of a thing which was changeable, was a
miracle. [377] But who is it that gives life to every living thing at
its birth, unless He who gave life to that serpent also for the
moment, as there was need. [378]

Footnotes

[371] 1 Kings xviii. 45
[372] Ex. xix. 6
[373] 1 Cor. iii. 7
[374] John ii. 9
[375] Num. xvii. 8
[376] Gen. i. 24
[377] Ex. iv. 3
[378] [One chief reason why a miracle is incredible for the skeptic,
is the difficulty of working it. If the miracle were easy of execution
for man--who for the skeptic is the measure of power--his disbelief of
it would disappear. In reference to this objection, Augustin calls
attention to the fact, that so far as difficulty of performance is
concerned, the products of nature are as impossible to man as
supernatural products. Aaron could no more have made an almond rod
blossom and fructuate on an almond tree, than off it. That a miracle
is difficult to be wrought is, consequently, no good reason for
disbelieving its reality.--W.G.T.S.]

Chapter 6.--Diversity Alone Makes a Miracle.

And who is it that restored to the corpses their proper souls when the
dead rose again, [379] unless He who gives life to the flesh in the
mother's womb, in order that they may come into being who yet are to
die? But when such things happen in a continuous kind of river of
ever-flowing succession, passing from the hidden to the visible, and
from the visible to the hidden, by a regular and beaten track, then
they are called natural; when, for the admonition of men, they are
thrust in by an unusual changeableness, then they are called miracles.

Footnotes

[379] Ezek. xxxvii. 1-10

Chapter 7.--Great Miracles Wrought by Magic Arts.

12. I see here what may occur to a weak judgment, namely, why such
miracles are wrought also by magic arts; for the wise men of Pharaoh
likewise made serpents, and did other like things. Yet it is still
more a matter of wonder, how it was that the power of those magicians,
which was able to make serpents, when it came to very small flies,
failed altogether. For the lice, by which third plague the proud
people of Egypt were smitten, are very short-lived little flies; yet
there certainly the magicians failed, saying, "This is the finger of
God." [380] And hence it is given us to understand that not even those
angels and powers of the air that transgressed, who have been thrust
down into that lowest darkness, as into a peculiar prison, from their
habitation in that lofty ethereal purity, through whom magic arts have
whatever power they have, can do anything except by power given from
above. Now that power is given either to deceive the deceitful, as it
was given against the Egyptians, and against the magicians also
themselves, in order that in the seducing of those spirits they might
seem admirable by whom they were wrought, but to be condemned by the
truth of God; or for the admonishing of the faithful, lest they should
desire to do anything of the kind as though it were a great thing, for
which reason they have been handed down to us also by the authority of
Scripture; or lastly, for the exercising, proving, and manifesting of
the patience of the righteous. For it was not by any small power of
visible miracles that Job lost all that he had, and both his children
and his bodily health itself. [381]

Footnotes

[380] Ex. vii. and viii
[381] Job i. and ii

Chapter 8.--God Alone Creates Those Things Which are Changed by Magic
Art.

13. Yet it is not on this account to be thought that the matter of
visible things is subservient to the bidding of those wicked angels;
but rather to that of God, by whom this power is given, just so far as
He, who is unchangeable, determines in His lofty and spiritual abode
to give it. For water and fire and earth are subservient even to
wicked men, who are condemned to the mines, in order that they may do
therewith what they will, but only so far as is permitted. Nor, in
truth, are those evil angels to be called creators, because by their
means the magicians, withstanding the servant of God, made frogs and
serpents; for it was not they who created them. But, in truth, some
hidden seeds of all things that are born corporeally and visibly, are
concealed in the corporeal elements of this world. For those seeds
that are visible now to our eyes from fruits and living things, are
quite distinct from the hidden seeds of those former seeds; from
which, at the bidding of the Creator, the water produced the first
swimming creatures and fowl, and the earth the first buds after their
kind, and the first living creatures after their kind. [382] For
neither at that time were those seeds so drawn forth into products of
their several kinds, as that the power of production was exhausted in
those products; but oftentimes, suitable combinations of circumstances
are wanting, whereby they may be enabled to burst forth and complete
their species. For, consider, the very least shoot is a seed; for, if
fitly consigned to the earth, it produces a tree. But of this shoot
there is a yet more subtle seed in some grain of the same species, and
this is visible even to us. But of this grain also there is further
still a seed, which, although we are unable to see it with our eyes,
yet we can conjecture its existence from our reason; because, except
there were some such power in those elements, there would not so
frequently be produced from the earth things which had not been sown
there; nor yet so many animals, without any previous commixture of
male and female; whether on the land, or in the water, which yet grow,
and by commingling bring forth others, while themselves sprang up
without any union of parents. And certainly bees do not conceive the
seeds of their young by commixture, but gather them as they lie
scattered over the earth with their mouth. [383] For the Creator of
these invisible seeds is the Creator of all things Himself; since
whatever comes forth to our sight by being born, receives the first
beginnings of its course from hidden seeds, and takes the successive
increments of its proper size and its distinctive forms from these as
it were original rules. As therefore we do not call parents the
creators of men, nor farmers the creators of corn,--although it is by
the outward application of their actions that the power [384] of God
operates within for the creating these things;--so it is not right to
think not only the bad but even the good angels to be creators, if,
through the subtilty of their perception and body, they know the seeds
of things which to us are more hidden, and scatter them secretly
through fit temperings of the elements, and so furnish opportunities
of producing things, and of accelerating their increase. But neither
do the good angels do these things, except as far as God commands, nor
do the evil ones do them wrongfully, except as far as He righteously
permits. For the malignity of the wicked one makes his own will
wrongful; but the power to do so, he receives rightfully, whether for
his own punishment, or, in the case of others, for the punishment of
the wicked, or for the praise of the good.

14. Accordingly, the Apostle Paul, distinguishing God's creating and
forming within, from the operations of the creature which are applied
from without, and drawing a similitude from agriculture, says, "I
planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase." [385] As,
therefore, in the case of spiritual life itself, no one except God can
work righteousness in our minds, yet men also are able to preach the
gospel as an outward means, not only the good in sincerity, but also
the evil in pretence; [386] so in the creation of visible things it is
God that works from within; but the exterior operations, whether of
good or bad, of angels or men, or even of any kind of animal,
according to His own absolute power, and to the distribution of
faculties, and the several appetites for things pleasant, which He
Himself has imparted, are applied by Him to that nature of things
wherein He creates all things, in like manner as agriculture is to the
soil. Wherefore I can no more call the bad angels, evoked by magic
arts, the creators of the frogs and serpents, than I can say that bad
men were creators of the corn crop, which I see to have sprung up
through their labor.

15. Just as Jacob, again, was not the creator of the colors in the
flocks, because he placed the various colored rods for the several
mothers, as they drank, to look at in conceiving. [387] Yet neither
were the cattle themselves creators of the variety of their own
offspring, because the variegated image, impressed through their eyes
by the sight of the varied rods, clave to their soul, but could affect
the body that was animated by the spirit thus affected only through
sympathy with this commingling, so far as to stain with color the
tender beginnings of their offspring. For that they are so affected
from themselves, whether the soul from the body, or the body from the
soul, arises in truth from suitable reasons, which immutably exist in
that highest wisdom of God Himself, which no extent of place contains;
and which, while it is itself unchangeable, yet quits not one even of
those things which are changeable, because there is not one of them
that is not created by itself. For it was the unchangeable and
invisible reason of the wisdom of God, by which all things are
created, which caused not rods, but cattle, to be born from cattle;
but that the color of the cattle conceived should be in any degree
influenced by the variety of the rods, came to pass through the soul
of the pregnant cattle being affected through their eyes from without,
and so according to its own measure drawing inwardly within itself the
rule of formation, which it received from the innermost power of its
own Creator. How great, however, may be the power of the soul in
affecting and changing corporeal substance (although certainly it
cannot be called the creator of the body, because every cause of
changeable and sensible substance, and all its measure and number and
weight, by which are brought to pass both its being at all and its
being of such and such a nature, arise from the intelligible and
unchangeable life, which is above all things, and which reaches even
to the most distant and earthly things), is a very copious subject,
and one not now necessary. But I thought the act of Jacob about the
cattle should be noticed, for this reason, viz. in order that it might
be perceived that, if the man who thus placed those rods cannot be
called the creator of the colors in the lambs and kids; nor yet even
the souls themselves of the mothers, which colored the seeds conceived
in the flesh by the image of variegated color, conceived through the
eyes of the body, so far as nature permitted it; much less can it be
said that the creators of the frogs and serpents were the bad angels,
through whom the magicians of Pharaoh then made them.

Footnotes

[382] Gen. i. 20-25
[383] [Augustin is not alone in his belief that the bee is an
exception to the dictum; omne animal ex ovo. As late as 1744, Thorley,
an English "scientist," said that "the manner in which bees propagate
their species is entirely hid from the eyes of all men; and the most
strict, diligent, and curious observers and inquisitors have not been
able to discover it. It is a secret, and will remain a mystery. Dr.
Butler says that they do not copulate as other living creatures do."
(Thorley: Melisselogia. Section viii.) The observations of Huber and
others have disproved this opinion. Some infer that ignorance of
physics proves ignorance of philosophy and theology. The difference
between matter and mind is so great, that erroneous opinions in one
province are compatible with correct ones in the other. It does not
follow that because Augustin had wrong notions about bees, and no
knowledge at all of the steam engine and telegraph, his knowledge of
God and the soul was inferior to that of a modern
materialist.--W.G.T.S.]
[384] [The English translator renders "virtus" in its secondary sense
of "goodness." Augustin employs it here, in its primary sense of
"energy," "force."--W.G.T.S.]
[385] 1 Cor. iii. 6
[386] Phil. i. 18
[387] Gen. xxx. 41

Chapter 9.--The Original Cause of All Things is from God.

16. For it is one thing to make and administer the creature from the
innermost and highest turning-point of causation, which He alone does
who is God the Creator; but quite another thing to apply some
operation from without in proportion to the strength and faculties
assigned to each by Him, so that what is created may come forth into
being at this time or at that, and in this or that way. For all these
things in the way of original and beginning have already been created
in a kind of texture of the elements, but they come forth when they
get the opportunity. [388] For as mothers are pregnant with young, so
the world itself is pregnant with the causes of things that are born;
which are not created in it, except from that highest essence, where
nothing either springs up or dies, either begins to be or ceases. But
the applying from without of adventitious causes, which, although they
are not natural, yet are to be applied according to nature, in order
that those things which are contained and hidden in the secret bosom
of nature may break forth and be outwardly created in some way by the
unfolding of the proper measures and numbers and weights which they
have received in secret from Him "who has ordered all things in
measure and number and weight:" [389] this is not only in the power of
bad angels, but also of bad men, as I have shown above by the example
of agriculture.

17. But lest the somewhat different condition of animals should
trouble any one, in that they have the breath of life with the sense
of desiring those things that are according to nature, and of avoiding
those things that are contrary to it; we must consider also, how many
men there are who know from what herbs or flesh, or from what juices
or liquids you please, of whatever sort, whether so placed or so
buried, or so bruised or so mixed, this or that animal is commonly
born; yet who can be so foolish as to dare to call himself the creator
of these animals? Is it, therefore, to be wondered at, if just as any,
the most worthless of men, can know whence such or such worms and
flies are produced; so the evil angels in proportion to the subtlety
of their perceptions discern in the more hidden seeds of the elements
whence frogs and serpents are produced, and so through certain and
known opportune combinations applying these seeds by secret movements,
cause them to be created, but do not create them? Only men do not
marvel at those things that are usually done by men. But if any one
chance to wonder at the quickness of those growths, in that those
living beings were so quickly made, let him consider how even this may
be brought about by men in proportion to the measure of human
capability. For whence is it that the same bodies generate worms more
quickly in summer than in winter, or in hotter than in colder places?
Only these things are applied by men with so much the more difficulty,
in proportion as their earthly and sluggish members are wanting in
subtlety of perception, and in rapidity of bodily motion. And hence it
arises that in the case of any kind of angels, in proportion as it is
easier for them to draw out the proximate causes from the elements, so
much the more marvellous is their rapidity in works of this kind.

18. But He only is the creator who is the chief former of these
things. Neither can any one be this, unless He with whom primarily
rests the measure, number, and weight of all things existing; and He
is God the one Creator, by whose unspeakable power it comes to pass,
also, that what these angels were able to do if they were permitted,
they are therefore not able to do because they are not permitted. For
there is no other reason why they who made frogs and serpents were not
able to make the most minute flies, unless because the greater power
of God was present prohibiting them, through the Holy Spirit; which
even the magicians themselves confessed, saying, "This is the finger
of God." [390] But what they are able to do by nature, yet cannot do,
because they are prohibited; and what the very condition of their
nature itself does not suffer them to do; it is difficult, nay,
impossible, for man to search out, unless through that gift of God
which the apostle mentions when he says, "To another the discerning of
spirits." [391] For we know that a man can walk, yet that he cannot do
so if he is not permitted; but that he cannot fly, even if he be
permitted. So those angels, also, are able to do certain things if
they are permitted by more powerful angels, according to the supreme
commandment of God; but cannot do certain other things, not even if
they are permitted by them; because He does not permit from whom they
have received such and such a measure of natural powers: who, even by
His angels, does not usually permit what He has given them power to be
able to do.

19. Excepting, therefore, those corporeal things which are done in the
order of nature in a perfectly usual series of times, as e.g., the
rising and setting of the stars, the generations and deaths of
animals, the innumerable diversities of seeds and buds, the vapors and
the clouds, the snow and the rain, the lightnings and the thunder, the
thunderbolts and the hail, the winds and the fire, cold and heat, and
all like things; excepting also those which in the same order of
nature occur rarely, such as eclipses, unusual appearances of stars,
and monsters, and earthquakes, and such like;--all these, I say, are
to be excepted, of which indeed the first and chief cause is only the
will of God; whence also in the Psalm, when some things of this kind
had been mentioned, "Fire and hail, snow and vapor, stormy wind," lest
any one should think those to be brought about either by chance or
only from corporeal causes, or even from such as are spiritual, but
exist apart from the will of God, it is added immediately, "fulfilling
His word." [392]

Footnotes

[388] [This is the same as the theological distinction between
substances and their modifications. "The former," says Howe, "are the
proper object of creation strictly taken; the modifications of things
are not properly created, in the strictest sense of creation, but are
educed and brought forth out of those substantial things that were
themselves created, or made out of nothing."--Germs are originated ex
nihilo, and fall under creation proper; their evolution and
development takes place according to the nature and inherent force of
the germ, and falls under providence, in distinction from creation.
See the writer's Theological Essays, 133-137.--W.G.T.S.]
[389] Wisd. xi. 20
[390] Ex. vii. 12, and viii. 7, 18, 19
[391] 1 Cor. xii. 10
[392] Ps. cxlviii. 8

Chapter 10.--In How Many Ways the Creature is to Be Taken by Way of
Sign. The Eucharist.

Excepting, therefore, all these things as I just now said, there are
some also of another kind; which, although from the same corporeal
substance, are yet brought within reach of our senses in order to
announce something from God, and these are properly called miracles
and signs; yet is not the person of God Himself assumed in all things
which are announced to us by the Lord God. When, however, that person
is assumed, it is sometimes made manifest as an angel; sometimes in
that form which is not an angel in his own proper being, although it
is ordered and ministered by an angel. Again, when it is assumed in
that form which is not an angel in his own proper being; sometimes in
this case it is a body itself already existing, assumed after some
kind of change, in order to make that message manifest; sometimes it
is one that comes into being for the purpose, and that being
accomplished, is discarded. Just as, also, when men are the
messengers, sometimes they speak the words of God in their own person,
as when it is premised, "The Lord said," or, "Thus saith the Lord,"
[393] or any other such phrase, but sometimes without any such prefix,
they take upon themselves the very person of God, as e.g.: "I will
instruct thee, and teach thee in the way wherein thou shalt go:" [394]
so, not only in word, but also in act, the signifying of the person of
God is imposed upon the prophet, in order that he may bear that person
in the ministering of the prophecy; just as he, for instance, bore
that person who divided his garment into twelve parts, and gave ten of
them to the servant of King Solomon, to the future king of Israel.
[395] Sometimes, also, a thing which was not a prophet in his own
proper self, and which existed already among earthly things, was
assumed in order to signify this; as Jacob, when he had seen the
dream, upon waking up did with the stone, which when asleep he had
under his head. [396] Sometimes a thing is made in the same kind, for
the mere purpose; so as either to continue a little while in
existence, as that brazen serpent was able to do which was lifted up
in the wilderness, [397] and as written records are able to do
likewise; or so as to pass away after having accomplished its
ministry, as the bread made for the purpose is consumed in the
receiving of the sacrament.

20. But because these things are known to men, in that they are done
by men, they may well meet with reverence as being holy things, but
they cannot cause wonder as being miracles. And therefore those things
which are done by angels are the more wonderful to us, in that they
are more difficult and more known; but they are known and easy to them
as being their own actions. An angel speaks in the person of God to
man, saying, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the
God of Jacob;" the Scripture having said just before, "The angel of
the Lord appeared to him." [398] And a man also speaks in the person
of God, saying, "Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee, O
Israel: I am the Lord thy God." [399] A rod was taken to serve as a
sign, and was changed into a serpent by angelical power; [400] but
although that power is wanting to man, yet a stone was taken also by
man for a similar sign. [401] There is a wide difference between the
deed of the angel and the deed of the man. The former is both to be
wondered at and to be understood, the latter only to be understood.
That which is understood from both, is perhaps one and the same; but
those things from which it is understood, are different. Just as if
the name of God were written both in gold and in ink; the former would
be the more precious, the latter the more worthless; yet that which is
signified in both is one and the same. And although the serpent that
came from Moses' rod signified the same thing as Jacob's stone, yet
Jacob's stone signified something better than did the serpents of the
magicians. For as the anointing of the stone signified Christ in the
flesh, in which He was anointed with the oil of gladness above His
fellows; [402] so the rod of Moses, turned into a serpent, signified
Christ Himself made obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
[403] Whence it is said, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life;" [404]
just as by gazing on that serpent which was lifted up in the
wilderness, they did not perish by the bites of the serpents. For "our
old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be
destroyed." [405] For by the serpent death is understood, which was
wrought by the serpent in paradise, [406] the mode of speech
expressing the effect by the efficient. Therefore the rod passed into
the serpent, Christ into death; and the serpent again into the rod,
whole Christ with His body into the resurrection; which body is the
Church; [407] and this shall be in the end of time, signified by the
tail, which Moses held, in order that it might return into a rod.
[408] But the serpents of the magicians, like those who are dead in
the world, unless by believing in Christ they shall have been as it
were swallowed up by, [409] and have entered into, His body, will not
be able to rise again in Him. Jacob's stone, therefore, as I said,
signified something better than did the serpents of the magicians; yet
the deed of the magicians was much more wonderful. But these things in
this way are no hindrance to the understanding of the matter; just as
if the name of a man were written in gold, and that of God in ink.

21. What man, again, knows how the angels made or took those clouds
and fires in order to signify the message they were bearing, even if
we supposed that the Lord or the Holy Spirit was manifested in those
corporeal forms? Just as infants do not know of that which is placed
upon the altar and consumed after the performance of the holy
celebration, whence or in what manner it is made, or whence it is
taken for religious use. And if they were never to learn from their
own experience or that of others, and never to see that species of
thing except during the celebration of the sacrament, when it is being
offered and given; and if it were told them by the most weighty
authority whose body and blood it is; they will believe nothing else,
except that the Lord absolutely appeared in this form to the eyes of
mortals, and that that liquid actually flowed from the piercing of a
side [410] which resembled this. But it is certainly a useful caution
to myself, that I should remember what my own powers are, and admonish
my brethren that they also remember what theirs are, lest human
infirmity pass on beyond what is safe. For how the angels do these
things, or rather, how God does these things by His angels, and how
far He wills them to be done even by the bad angels, whether by
permitting, or commanding, or compelling, from the hidden seat of His
own supreme power; this I can neither penetrate by the sight of the
eyes, nor make clear by assurance of reason, nor be carried on to
comprehend it by reach of intellect, so as to speak thereupon to all
questions that may be asked respecting these matters, as certainly as
if I were an angel, or a prophet, or an apostle. "For the thoughts of
mortal men are miserable, and our devices are but uncertain. For the
corruptible body presseth down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle
weigheth down the mind, that museth upon many things. And hardly do we
guess aright at things that are upon earth, and with labor do we find
the things that are before us; but the things that are in heaven, who
hath searched out?" But because it goes on to say, "And Thy counsel
who hath known, except Thou give wisdom, and send Thy Holy Spirit from
above;" [411] therefore we refrain indeed from searching out the
things which are in heaven, under which kind are contained both
angelical bodies according to their proper dignity, and any corporeal
action of those bodies; yet, according to the Spirit of God sent to us
from above, and to His grace imparted to our minds, I dare to say
confidently, that neither God the Father, nor His Word, nor His
Spirit, which is the one God, is in any way changeable in regard to
that which He is, and whereby He is that which He is; and much less is
in this regard visible. Since there are no doubt some things
changeable, yet not visible, as are our thoughts, and memories, and
wills, and the whole incorporeal creature; but there is nothing that
is visible that is not also changeable.

Chapter 11.--The Essence of God Never Appeared in Itself. Divine
Appearances to the Fathers Wrought by the Ministry of Angels. An
Objection Drawn from the Mode of Speech Removed. That the Appearing of
God to Abraham Himself, Just as that to Moses, Was Wrought by Angels.
The Same Thing is Proved by the Law Being Given to Moses by Angels.
What Has Been Said in This Book, and What Remains to Be Said in the
Next.

Wherefore the substance, or, if it is better so to say, the essence of
God, [412] wherein we understand, in proportion to our measure, in
however small a degree, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
since it is in no way changeable, can in no way in its proper self be
visible.

22. It is manifest, accordingly, that all those appearances to the
fathers, when God was presented to them according to His own
dispensation, suitable to the times, were wrought through the
creature. And if we cannot discern in what manner He wrought them by
ministry of angels, yet we say that they were wrought by angels; but
not from our own power of discernment, lest we should seem to any one
to be wise beyond our measure, whereas we are wise so as to think
soberly, as God hath dealt to us the measure of faith; [413] and we
believe, and therefore speak. [414] For the authority is extant of the
divine Scriptures, from which our reason ought not to turn aside; nor
by leaving the solid support of the divine utterance, to fall headlong
over the precipice of its own surmisings, in matters wherein neither
the perceptions of the body rule, nor the clear reason of the truth
shines forth. Now, certainly, it is written most clearly in the
Epistle to the Hebrews, when the dispensation of the New Testament was
to be distinguished from the dispensation of the Old, according to the
fitness of ages and of times, that not only those visible things, but
also the word itself, was wrought by angels. For it is said thus: "But
to which of the angels said He at any time, Sit on my right hand,
until I make thine enemies thy footstool? Are they not all ministering
spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of
salvation?" [415] Whence it appears that all those things were not
only wrought by angels, but wrought also on our account, that is, on
account of the people of God, to whom is promised the inheritance of
eternal life. As it is written also to the Corinthians, "Now all these
things happened unto them in a figure: and they are written for our
admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." [416] And then,
demonstrating by plain consequence that as at that time the word was
spoken by the angels, so now by the Son; "Therefore," he says, "we
ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard,
lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by
angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience
received a just recompense of reward; how shall we escape, if we
neglect so great salvation?" And then, as though you asked, What
salvation?--in order to show that he is now speaking of the New
Testament, that is, of the word which was spoken not by angels, but by
the Lord, he says, "Which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord,
and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him; God also bearing
them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles,
and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will." [417]

23. But some one may say, Why then is it written, "The Lord said to
Moses;" and not, rather, The angel said to Moses? Because, when the
crier proclaims the words of the judge, it is not usually written in
the record, so and so the crier said, but so and so the judge. In like
manner also, when the holy prophet speaks, although we say, The
prophet said, we mean nothing else to be understood than that the Lord
said; and if we were to say, The Lord said, we should not put the
prophet aside, but only intimate who spake by him. And, indeed, these
Scriptures often reveal the angel to be the Lord, of whose speaking it
is from time to time said, "the Lord said," as we have shown already.
But on account of those who, since the Scripture in that place
specifies an angel, will have the Son of God Himself and in Himself to
be understood, because He is called an angel by the prophet, as
announcing the will of His Father and of Himself; I have therefore
thought fit to produce a plainer testimony from this epistle, where it
is not said by an angel, but "by angels."

24. For Stephen, too, in the Acts of the Apostles, relates these
things in that manner in which they are also written in the Old
Testament: "Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken," he says; "The God of
glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia."
[418] But lest any one should think that the God of glory appeared
then to the eyes of any mortal in that which He is in Himself, he goes
on to say that an angel appeared to Moses. "Then fled Moses," he says,
"at that saying, and was a stranger in the land of Midian, where he
begat two sons. And when forty years were expired, there appeared to
him in the wilderness of mount Sinai an angel of the Lord in a flame
of fire in a bush. When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as
he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him,
saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God
of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not
behold. Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet,"
[419] etc. Here, certainly, he speaks both of angel and of Lord; and
of the same as the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob; as is written in Genesis.

25. Can there be any one who will say that the Lord appeared to Moses
by an angel, but to Abraham by Himself? Let us not answer this
question from Stephen, but from the book itself, whence Stephen took
his narrative. For, pray, because it is written, "And the Lord God
said unto Abraham;" [420] and a little after, "And the Lord God
appeared unto Abraham;" [421] were these things, for this reason, not
done by angels? Whereas it is said in like manner in another place,
"And the Lord appeared to him in the plains of Mamre, as he sat in the
tent door in the heat of the day;" and yet it is added immediately,
"And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him:"
[422] of whom we have already spoken. For how will these people, who
either will not rise from the words to the meaning, or easily throw
themselves down from the meaning to the words,--how, I say, will they
be able to explain that God was seen in three men, except they confess
that they were angels, as that which follows also shows? Because it is
not said an angel spoke or appeared to him, will they therefore
venture to say that the vision and voice granted to Moses was wrought
by an angel because it is so written, but that God appeared and spake
in His own substance to Abraham because there is no mention made of an
angel? What of the fact, that even in respect to Abraham an angel is
not left unmentioned? For when his son was ordered to be offered up as
a sacrifice, we read thus: "And it came to pass after these things
that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said,
Behold, here I am. And He said, Take now thy son, thine only son
Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and
offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains that I
will tell thee of." Certainly God is here mentioned, not an angel. But
a little afterwards Scripture hath it thus: "And Abraham stretched
forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of
the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham:
and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad,
neither do thou anything unto him." What can be answered to this? Will
they say that God commanded that Isaac should be slain, and that an
angel forbade it? and further, that the father himself, in opposition
to the decree of God, who had commanded that he should be slain,
obeyed the angel, who had bidden him spare him? Such an interpretation
is to be rejected as absurd. Yet not even for it, gross and abject as
it is, does Scripture leave any room, for it immediately adds: "For
now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy
son, thine only son, on account of me." [423] What is "on account of
me," except on account of Him who had commanded him to be slain? Was
then the God of Abraham the same as the angel, or was it not rather
God by an angel? Consider what follows. Here, certainly, already an
angel has been most clearly spoken of; yet notice the context: "And
Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram
caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram,
and offered him up for a burnt-offering in the stead of his son. And
Abraham called the name of that place, The Lord saw: [424] as it is
said to this day, In the mount the Lord was seen." [425] Just as that
which a little before God said by an angel, "For now I know that thou
fearest God;" not because it was to be understood that God then came
to know, but that He brought it to pass that through God Abraham
himself came to know what strength of heart he had to obey God, even
to the sacrificing of his only son: after that mode of speech in which
the effect is signified by the efficient,--as cold is said to be
sluggish, because it makes men sluggish; so that He was therefore said
to know, because He had made Abraham himself to know, who might well
have not discerned the firmness of his own faith, had it not been
proved by such a trial. So here, too, Abraham called the name of the
place "The Lord saw," that is, caused Himself to be seen. For he goes
on immediately to say, "As it is said to this day, In the mount the
Lord was seen." Here you see the same angel is called Lord: wherefore,
unless because the Lord spake by the angel? But if we pass on to that
which follows, the angel altogether speaks as a prophet, and reveals
expressly that God is speaking by the angel. "And the angel of the
Lord," he says, "called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,
and said, By myself I have sworn, saith the Lord; for because thou
hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son,
on account of me," [426] etc. Certainly these words, viz. that he by
whom the Lord speaks should say, "Thus saith the Lord," are commonly
used by the prophets also. Does the Son of God say of the Father, "The
Lord saith," while He Himself is that Angel of the Father? What then?
Do they not see how hard pressed they are about these three men who
appeared to Abraham, when it had been said before, "The Lord appeared
to him?" Were they not angels because they are called men? Let them
read Daniel, saying, "Behold the man Gabriel." [427]

26. But why do we delay any longer to stop their mouths by another
most clear and most weighty proof, where not an angel in the singular
nor men in the plural are spoken of, but simply angels; by whom not
any particular word was wrought, but the Law itself is most distinctly
declared to be given; which certainly none of the faithful doubts that
God gave to Moses for the control of the children of Israel, or yet,
that it was given by angels. So Stephen speaks: "Ye stiff-necked," he
says, "and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the
Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have
not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed
before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the
betrayers and murderers: who have received the Law by the disposition
of angels, [428] and have not kept it." [429] What is more evident
than this? What more strong than such an authority? The Law, indeed,
was given to that people by the disposition of angels; but the advent
of our Lord Jesus Christ was by it prepared and pre-announced; and He
Himself, as the Word of God, was in some wonderful and unspeakable
manner in the angels, by whose disposition the Law itself was given.
And hence He said in the Gospel, "For had ye believed Moses, ye would
have believed me; for he wrote of me." [430] Therefore then the Lord
was speaking by the angels; and the son of God, who was to be the
Mediator of God and men, from the seed of Abraham, was preparing His
own advent by the angels, that He might find some by whom He would be
received, confessing themselves guilty, whom the Law unfulfilled had
made transgressors. And hence the apostle also says to the Galatians,
"Wherefore then serveth the Law? It was added because of
transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was
made, which [seed] was ordered [431] through angels in the hand of a
mediator;" [432] that is, ordered through angels in His own hand. For
He was not born in limitation, but in power. But you learn in another
place that he does not mean any one of the angels as a mediator, but
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, in so far as He deigned to be made man:
"For there is one God," he says, "and one Mediator between God and
man, the man Christ Jesus." [433] Hence that passover in the killing
of the lamb: [434] hence all those things which are figuratively
spoken in the Law, of Christ to come in the flesh, and to suffer, but
also to rise again, which Law was given by the disposition of angels;
in which angels, were certainly the Father, and the Son, and the Holy
Spirit; and in which, sometimes the Father, sometimes the Son,
sometimes the Holy Spirit, and sometimes God, without any distinction
of person, was figuratively signified by them, although appearing in
visible and sensible forms, yet by His own creature, not by His
substance, in order to the seeing of which, hearts are cleansed
through all those things which are seen by the eyes and heard by the
ears.

27. But now, as I think, that which we had undertaken to show in this
book has been sufficiently discussed and demonstrated, according to
our capacity; and it has been established, both by probable reason, so
far as a man, or rather, so far as I am able, and by strength of
authority, so far as the divine declarations from the Holy Scriptures
have been made clear, that those words and bodily appearances which
were given to these ancient fathers of ours before the incarnation of
the Saviour, when God was said to appear, were wrought by angels:
whether themselves speaking or doing something in the person of God,
as we have shown that the prophets also were wont to do, or assuming
from the creature that which they themselves were not, wherein God
might be shown in a figure to men; which manner of showing also,
Scripture teaches by many examples, that the prophets, too, did not
omit. It remains, therefore, now for us to consider,--since both in
the Lord as born of a virgin, and in the Holy Spirit descending in a
corporeal form like a dove, [435] and in the tongues like as of fire,
which appeared with a sound from heaven on the day of Pentecost, after
the ascension of the Lord, [436] it was not the Word of God Himself by
His own substance, in which He is equal and eternal with the Father,
nor the Spirit of the Father and of the Son by His own substance, in
which He Himself also is equal and co-eternal with both, but assuredly
a creature, such as could be formed and exist in these fashions, which
appeared to corporeal and mortal senses,--it remains, I say, to
consider what difference there is between these manifestations and
those which were proper to the Son of God and to the Holy Spirit,
although wrought by the visible creature; [437] which subject we shall
more conveniently begin in another book.